LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT  OF  , 

THE    FAMILY   OF   REV.    DR.   GEORGE    MOOAR 

Class 


RADICAL  PROBLEMS. 


BY 


C.    A.    BARTOL 


BOSTON: 

ROBERTS      BROTHERS. 
1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by 

C.     A.     B  ARTOL, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


CAMBRIDGE: 
PRESS  OF  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  OPEN  QUESTIONS i 

II.  INDIVIDUALISM 28 

III.  TRANSCENDENTALISM 61 

IV.  RADICALISM 98 

V.  THEISM 119 

VI.  NATURALISM 153 

VII.  MATERIALISM 169 

'  VIII.  SPIRITUALISM 195 

IX.  FAITH 210 

X.  LAW 245 

XI.  ORIGIN 262 

XII.  CORRELATION 284 

XIII.  CHARACTER 300 

XIV.  GENIUS  :  FATHER  TAYLOR 323 

XV.  EXPERIENCE 349 

XVI.  HOPE 362 

XVII.  IDEALITY 391 


1 23086 


RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 


OPEN    QUESTIONS. 


WHAT  legislators  sometimes  say  is  true  of  all 
questions :  they  may  be  divided.  Life  looks 
like  a  page  disfigured  with  interrogation-points  ;  and 
every  answer  breeds  new  curiosity,  as  if  it  were  a 
polyp.  The  child  is  an  incarnate  question,  posing  all 
his  elders ;  and  the  widening  circle  of  light  subtends 
such  a  broader  round  of  darkness  as  to  give  color  to 
the  old  sage's  remark,  —  "  One  thing  I  know,  that  God 
hates  inquisitiveness  ;  "  while  many,  like  Lord  Bacon, 
value  investigation  superficially  for  its  results  of  utility, 
despairing  of  absolute  truth.  But  experience  and 
memory  are  tests  that  all  inquiry  is  intrinsically  pre 
cious.  I  call  to  mind  a  college  excursion  with  the 
mathematical  professor,  to  measure  with  instruments, 
by  triangulation,  the  distance  between  some  towns  in 
Maine.  How  far  it  was  I  have  long  since  forgot, 
but  not  the  wonderful  delight  of  the  experiment,  the 
new  dignity  of  the  search  for  hill-tops  of  observation, 
nor  the  cup  of  tamarind  water  a  good  woman,  honor 
ing  our  errand,  gave  to  the  thirsty,  foot-sore  wanderers 
by  the  way.  We  are  glad  at  every  solution  of  a 


RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 


problem ;  yet  queries  are  the  intellectual  miser's 
hoard,  in  whose  satisfaction  by  successful  study  he 
would  not  rejoice,  but  that  other  queries  take  their 
place.  I  fancy  a  shade  of  sadness  tinged  the  exultation 
of  Columbus  when  the  Western  hemisphere  showed 
signs  of  its  neighborhood  to  his  vessel,  to  unbury  the 
mystery  of  the  deep,  and  give  an  interpretation  to  the 
magnificent  dream  he  had  so  soon  to  exchange  for 
ungrateful  facts.  To  guess  pleases  as  to  find  out  the 
conundrum,  riddle,  or  buried  city.  Our  first  concep 
tion  equals  in  pleasure  any  verification.  The  hen  is 
not  happier  among  the  brood  she  is  so  anxious  about 
than  in  her  nest ;  and  in  the  mind's  incubation  there 
are  no  heavy  hours,  but  Time  blends  with  Eternity,  so 
deep  and  peaceful  is  its  flow. 

In  all  pursuit  there  is  a  certain  dignity.  The 
money-making  we  despise  is  nobler  than  profuseness, 
and  is  often  not  avarice  of  acquisition,  but  activity  of 
worthy  powers ;  so  that  a  sincere  Croesus  said,  if  his 
children  had  as  much  comfort  in  spending  as  he  in 
accumulating  his  fortune,  he  should  be  content.  It  is  a 
pulpit  lamentation,  as  shallow  as  it  is  doleful,  that  we 
are  but  getting  ready  to  live,  as  also  that  poet  line,  — 

"  Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest." 

Let  me  join  the  enterprise,  share  who  will  the  fruit ! 
To  go  with  Cortes  was  better  than  Mexican  gold  ;  and 
my  friend's  expedition  to  Alaska  is  of  more  worth  than 
any  plant  or  precious  fur.  You  buy  your  land  and 
build  your  house,  arrange  the  orchard  and  trim  the 
garden-grounds,  and  then  expect  your  reward.  Fool 
ish,  if  you  count  on  any  recompense  sweeter  than  you 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  3 

had  as  you  went  along !  No  peach  or  pear  will  be 
more  delicious  than  your  thought  in  setting  out  the 
trees.  My  neighbor  grew  weary  of  his  perfect  situa 
tion,  and  wanted  to  cross  the  bay  and  occupy  a  lonelier 
point. 

There  is  a  movement-cure  for  the  mind.  Of  one  not 
established  in  his  views,  it  is  said  in  pity,  "  He  is  all 
afloat ;"  as  if  that  were  not  the  best  condition,  grander 
and  safer  than  to  be  ashore,  —  as  if  there  were  a  finer 
spectacle  of  ships  in  port  than  of  the  yacht-squadron 
racing  along  the  coast,  or  the  grating  of  my  keel  on 
the  beach  could  be  such  transport  as  to  be  rocked  in 
my  boat  on  the  waves.  The  anchor,  said  one,  is  a 
true  emblem  :  it  holds  the  vessel  fast,  though  it  does 
not  hold  the  vessel  still.  But  the  eternal  heaving 
underneath  is  a  signal  that  the  true  state  is  to  hoist  at 
the  windlass,  and  away  ;  and  no  figure  of  Hope  leaning 
on  the  fluke  is  just  to  its  nature  of  exploration  without 
end.  There  is  provision  for  further  growth  in  the 
bones  of  the  skull  and  organs  of  the  brain  after  the 
sutures  are  closed  :  let  there  be  space  to  expand  in 
the  hardest  understanding. 

Freedom  is  not  caprice,  but  room  to  enlarge.  There 
is  a  certain  shock  from  the  pavement  to  whoever 
returns  from  roaming  among  the  mountains  or  by  the 
sea.  The  city  streets,  like  broad  curtains  or  enormous 
window-blinds,  shut  us  in  ;  and  we  feel  robbed  of  the 
elements — light,  air,  earth,  and  water  —  which  make 
the  liberty  of  our  framej  and  are  better  than  any 
physician's  medicine-chest  for  every  nervous  disease. 
We  want  not  only  so  much  sun  and  oxygen  as  can  be 
got  into  a  chamber,  the  drink  a  bottle  will  hold,  and 


4  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ground  enough,  like  a  caged  tiger,  to  pace  to  and  fro 
in,  —  but  to  breathe  the  whole  atmosphere,  behold  the 
sky  full  of  radiance,  put  our  lips  to  the  living  spring, 
and  have  no  goal  for  our  feet.  Civilization  increases 
liberty,  which  is  not,  as  jurists  say,  its  price.  When 
institutions  become  bounds,  the  soul  is  cramped. 
Forms  and  ordinances  multiplied  and  made  essential 
to  salvation  feel  sepulchral,  like  some  walled  town  of 
Quebec  whose  old  defences  stand  against  enemies  long 
since  passed  away.  All  creeds  and  rituals  are  on  the 
defensive  against  benefactors  who  open  the  question 
of  their  truth,  and  stop  them  with  a  challenge  for  the 
loyal  pass-word.  Jesus  well  prescribed  for  our  com 
munication,  nay,  nay,  as  well  &s  yea,  yea.  I  admired 
the  little  girl  who  to  my  questions  rolled  out  a  succes 
sion  of  clear  noes  round  as  a  revolver's  bullets,  —  a 
sign  that  the  footing  I  should  be  on  with  her  would 
never  become  a  swamp  of  good-nature ;  and  was 
pleased  with  the  yearling  boy  who  said,  plain  as  he 
could,  "  Hands  oft'! "  to  those  who  would  seize  him, 
issued  his  declaration  of  independence  that  he  was 
no  lump  of  dough  to  be  kneaded,  but  a  block  of 
marble  to  be  turned  into  beauty  by  some  artist's  skill. 
Establishments  must  answer  for  themselves  to  him  by 
and  by ! 

The  dogmatic  look  is  stupid  ;  the  inquiring,  bright, 
like  that  of  people  eager  in  the  chase.  So  we  can 
explain  the  extreme  changes  in  the  same  countenances. 
How  uninteresting  when  they  are  close,  with  nothing 
to  impart  or  receive,  like  the  shut  bivalve  on  the  tide- 
less  flats !  People  who  have  made  up  their  minds, 
and  are  fixed,  as  they  say,  resemble  merchants  taking 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  5 

account  of  stock,  or  householders  making  an  inventory 
of  their  goods,  instead  of  venturing  bold  purchase, 
exercising  hospitality,  or  driving  a  brisk  trade.  Light 
houses  by  day  are  useless  for  guides  ;  and  your  system 
of  theology,  which  no  ever-burning  thought  illumi 
nates,  is  an  old  vase  or  lantern  that  lost  its  lamp  long 
ago.  I  observe  the  face  of  that  young  woman  settling 
upon  the  lees  of  religious  reflection,  —  how  plain  and 
ugly  the  features  are  !  Anon  she  comes  to  me,  earnest 
in  study,  ready  to  compare  notes,  and  so  handsome  I 
cannot  believe  my  own  eyes. 

We  are  made  for  spiritual  progress.  Our  organism 
hints  for  its  object  perpetuation  of  the  race.  But  the 
easy  propagation  of  vulgar  specimens,  and  the  num 
ber  of  noble  members  of  mankind  without  posterity ; 
the  decease  of  genius  and  virtue  leaving  no  issue, 
though  the  trustees  of  those  shining  glories  have 
descendants  also  from  their  loins  ;  or  the  too  much  or 
little  of  some  parental  element,  giving  insanity,  eccen 
tricity,  or  idiocy,  instead  of  the  expected  soundness, — 
force  us  to  conclude  there  are  ends  beside  earthly 
inheritance  and  continuance.  Jesus  and  Paul  and 
Washington  have  no  heirs  ;  and  to  how  many  might 
Shakspeare's  sonnets  to  one  who  was  cheating  the 
world  with  barren  singleness  be  addressed  !  Without 
intentions  of  development  outreaching  fleshly  designs, 
men  would  come  down  to  the  level  of.  animals  and 
plants.  In  the  unfolding  of  truth  is  the  honor  of  our 
species  and  the  immortality  of  every  soul ;  and  for  this 
all  questions  of  truth  must  be  opened.  One  thing  is 
sacred,  —  the  sincere  thought ;  and  the  being  of  God, 
character  of  Jesus,  ultimacy  of  Christianity,  reality  of 


6  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

heaven,  must  be  discussed.  If,  in  the  old  Bible  hyper 
bole,  the  scheme  of  redemption  is  so  fine  the  angels 
desire  to  look  into  it,  surely  we  are  not  forbid. 

Doubtless,  in  the  wide  charter  of  freedom,  offensive 
and  extravagant  things  will  be  said.  The  remedy  is 
not  to  mind  them.  Defy  incendiaries  not  by  watch 
men  and  engines,  but  by  building  fire-proof!  Why 
be  troubled  everybody  does  not  think  like  you  of 
Christ?  Tell  the  defamer  of  your  Master  his  battery 
is  too  weak  or  your  constitution  too  strong  for  a  shock. 
Not  only  children,  but  childish  opinions,  are  the  better 
for  a  little  wholesome  neglect.  Irrational  rationalists, 
rootless  radicals,  and  infidels  for  pride  or  promi 
nence  of  unbelief,  are  to  be  let  severely  alone.  Only 
they  who  have  something  to  say  are,  with  refutation 
or  welcome,  to  be  met.  Set  your  castle-walls  and 
windows  too  high  for  the  malicious  to  bombard  or 
break  with  stones.  Are  you  disturbed  by  a  doctrine  ? 
Surely  it  has  ground  !  There  must  have  been  some 
thing  in  the  book,  or  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason  "  would 
not  have  hurt  so  much  or  lasted  so  long.  Calvin 
would  not  have  burnt  Servetus  could  he  have  other 
wise  answered  his  argument.  Jonathan  Mayhew  said 
the  foes  of  freemen  in  Church  and  State,  in  default  of 
logic,  knocked  out  their  brains,  and  so  furnished  an 
effectual  reply.  That  man,  you  say,  is  a  common 
scold.  Take  no  notice  of  him,  if  you  would  give  him 
better  than  he  sends.  Recrimination  of  others  crimi 
nates  you,  and  is  the  recriminator's  proof.  Solomon 
says  a  fretful  wife  is  like  a  bitter  rain.  Let  her  rain 
under  as  it  rains  on  the  roof,  and  heed  either  storm 
alike !  Oaths  and  remonstrances  in  the  street  are 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  7 

answered  every  day  by  not  stopping  to  parley,  but 
simply  keeping  on.  You  resist  only  when  wrestled 
with :  the  most  terrible  are  the  speechless  retorts. 
What  an  iconoclast !  you  say.  I  see  not  that  he  breaks 
any  thing.  He  is  impotent  who  bolts  or  is  schismatic 
without  cause.  Outrageous  expressions  !  you  declare. 
I  am  not  outraged.  The  community  is  not  absorbed 
in  the  barking  of  dogs.  Treat  the  irritable  controver 
sialist,  who  makes  a  question  of  every  statement,  as 
travellers  do  the  brainless  cur  who  thinks  it  his  duty 
to  run  every  moment  and  growl  at  the  gate.  I  walk 
right  by  the  guns  on  the  Common  bellowing  so  loud, 
that  have  no  shot  in  them  for  all  the  noise  and  blaze, 
and  despised  the  loud  manifesto  of  a  farmer's  dog 
when  I  learned  he  had  no  teeth,  though  I  saw  some 
boys  in  an  English  preserve  scared  by  a  canine  mon 
ster  alike  destitute  ;  and  there  are  critics  that  mouth 
and  bay,  but  draw  no  blood.  I  suspect  the  dogs  Paul 
told  his  friends  to  beware  of  had  something  to  say,  or 
could  bite. 

So  God  himself  sets  limits  to  the  objector  in  the 
weakness  of  the  objection,  and  dispenses  us  from  all 
need  to  bridle  others'  tongues,  or,  like  Louis  Napoleon 
with  his  throne  of  bayonets,  to  muzzle  the  press. 
Truth  cannot  be  disproved,  purity  cannot  be  libelled, 
nor  wisdom  overthrown.  Repression  of  free  inquiry  is 
not  too  much  ridiculed  in  the  proverb  that  a  cat  may 
look  upon  a  king.  I  thought,  said  one,  our  house  in 
the  great  September  gale  would  go,  till  I  remembered 
it  was  founded  on  a  rock.  A  basis  in  the  eternal  rock 
who  can  shake  ?  Pay  not  folly  the  compliment  of  fear. 
It  takes  a  deep  sound  to  reverberate.  What  you  do 
not  echo,  do  not  dread. 


8  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

But  conservatives  distinguish  between  questions  of 
science  and  questions  of  faith  :  the  first  are  open  ;  not 
the  last,  which  no  theories  of  nature  can  affect.  To 
all  criticisms  of  the  Scripture  history  or  cosmogony 
one  answer  is  made  :  that  the  Bible  does  not  mean  to 
teach  natural  knowledge.  Doubtless  the  sentiment  of 
faith  lies  deeper  than  the  understanding  which  the 
peace  of  God  passes.  Yet  articles  of  faith  are  ame 
nable  to  the  intellect.  We  distinguish  that,  too,  as  a 
general  power,  from  any  logical  conclusions.  But  it 
is  not  true  that  any  feeling  is  independent  of  the  judg 
ment.  Jesus  bids  us  love  God  with  all  our  mind  as 
well  as  heart ;  and  the  Divine  way,  not  our  imper- 
ceptiveness,  is  the  basis  of  our  trust.  We  are  learning 
that  horses  do  not  travel  better,  with  more  courage  or 
safety,  for  blinders ;  and  the  soul  is  no  swifter  for  duty 
or  loftier  in  aspiration  for  being  hoodwinked.  Igno 
rance  is  not  the  mother  of  devotion,  but  of  superstition 
and  obsequious  flattery  ;  not  of  service,  but  of  servility. 
We  worship  the  King  in  the  world  he  makes  his  crys 
tal  palace.  Has  our  idea  of  the  building  nought  to  do 
with  our  prayer?  Had  a  Ptolemaist  as  much  cause  to 
ascribe  glory  to  God  as  a  Copernican  ?  If  to  Alphonso 
creation  was  on  the  old  notion  so  misfashioned  he 
thought  he  could,  if  present,  have  given  the  Creator 
useful  hints,  his  regard  for  the  Architect  must  have 
been  lessened  by  the  faults  of  the  house,  which  Scho 
penhauer  held  so  enormous  he  saw  nothing  to  praise, 
and  could  not  adore  at  all,  leaving  us  a  book  not  deserv 
ing  to  be  opened,  and  a  portrait  we  should  fain  turn 
to  the  wall,  save  that  the  pessimist  was  so  honest  and 
brave.  The  Deity  in  Genesis  that  made  such  short 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  9 

business  of  the  world,  doing  it  up  in  six  days,  —  like 
some  master  workman,  called  a  driver  because  he 
gets  through  and  throws  off  so  many  affairs  in  the 
twenty-four  hours,  or  a  jobber  stopping  a  moment, 
then  off  on  some  other  errand,  like  Jehu  with  his  team, 

—  wins  not  the  reverence  we  pay  to  Him  who  works  in 
spaces  no  geometry  can  measure,  and  through  periods 
no  numerals  can  express. 

Faith  not  touched  by  sight,  taking  no  guidance  or 
glory  from  the  eye  of  the  mind  ?  The  God  that  com 
manded  Abraham  to  sacrifice  his  son,  or  prompted 
Jacob  to  plot  with  his  mother  to  rob  Esau  by  practis 
ing  on  father  Isaac  with  his  anachronism  of  false  hair, 

—  there  are  people  not  a  few,  and  ever  becoming  more, 
who  cannot  believe.     The  old  altar-fires  are  gone  out, 
and  we  can  no  more  go  back  to  the  Hebrew  notions 
than  to  the  lambs  and  goats  of  their  sacrifice.     Science 
is  to  be  minister  in  the  new  temple  not  completed  yet, 
and  will  bring  abundant  fuel  to  the  shrine  to  feed  the 
flame.     The  one  Jehovah  of  the  Jews,  presiding  over 
a  narrow  province,  is  expanding  to  the  manifold  Per- 
vader  of  an  infinite  sphere.     His  unity  is  verified  by 
analogies,    of  whose   extent   and   clearness  Moses  or 
Jesus  gave  no  hint,  but  modern  investigation  shows 
the  universe  kindling  and  alive  with.     When  from  the 
leafing  of  plants  to  the  orbits  of  planets  a  law  of  rela 
tion   is  traced,   the  words,  /  am,  and  there  is  none 
beside  me,  gather  a  wider  sense  than   in  their  first 
utterance.    As  the  soft  aurora  and  the  rending  thunder 
suggest  a  common  electricity,  whose  spending  is  fol 
lowed  by  cold,   we  catch  a  glimpse  of  threads  that 
stretch  through   the  firmament  and  sew  all  parts  of 


IO  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

God's  live  garment  together  finer  than  any  handiwork 
or  conception  of  man. 

The  keeping  open  of  the  questions  has,  more  than 
any  closure  of  them,  promoted  piety.  Religion  "would 
have  been  crushed,  if  not  quenched,  by  any  authority 
to  solve  them  at  whatever  Hebrew  or  Christian  time. 
Could  terms  of  salvation  have  been  written  down,  and 
the  plenary  verbal  inspirationists  have  succeeded  in 
the  final  settlement  they  undertook,  the  Church  would 
have  been  banished  from  the  circle  of  light,  degraded 
below  the  arena  of  controversy,  and  dismissed  from 
the  region  of  intelligence  as  no  subject  of.reason,  but  a 
motive  to  grovel  and  cringe  like  abject  savages  in  a  fit 
of  terror,  too  gloomy  to  be  streaked  with  the  twilight 
of  doubt  for  a  reminder  and  herald  of  the  dawn.  If 
we  would  be  rid  of  denial,  danger,  and  despair,  we 
must  keep  every  thing  open  :  the  conventicle,  com 
munion,  caucus,  hall,  and  railway  track,  whose  clog 
ging  by  some  untimely  train  is  occasion  of  ruin  and 
death.  The  thought  of  vast  assemblies  for  musical 
celebrations  of  peace  and  international  friendship  — 
nobler  than  that  division  of  the  spoils  at  which  the  so- 
called  Internationals,  are,  let  us  trust,  falsely  under 
stood  to  aim  —  has  had  such  fortune  as  to  be  accepted 
now  for  an  inspiration,  till  we  at  last  invite  to  wave 
together  amid  strains  of  harmony  the  flags  of  all  the 
kingdoms  and  republics  of  the  earth,  type  of  a  Com 
mune  worthy  to  have.  Eaith  must  not  in  its  pro 
portions  fall  below  the  generosity  of  amusement  and 
politics,  or  lag  in  corners  out  of  sight.  Let  the  Dog 
matist  give  place  to  the  Liberal !  When  Jesus  repre 
sents  the  Judge  as  setting  the  goats  on  the  left  hand, 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  II 

he  may  refer  not  to  the  lascivious  but  stubborn  nature 
of  the  beast,  which  even  in  tender  years  rears  on  its 
hinder  legs  to  butt  at  your  kindest  approach.  If  the 
bigots  are  so  typified,  they  will  turn  up  in  unexpected 
places.  Let  them  reasonably  suffer  the  love  that 
would  emancipate  them  from  their  fetters  ;  and  not,' 
like  the  cross  cow  I  saw,  hook  the  benefactor  that 
would  untether  the  bonds  from  their  own  feet. 

Free  inquiry  is  more  than  a  prerogative  of  one  man 
against  the  interference  of  another.  The  variety  of 
questions  we  ask,  as  of  wants  we  feel,  is  the  length 
of  our  scale,  and  measures  the  dignity  of  our  being : 
let  us  pity  the  angels  if,  as  we  are  told,  they  have 
found  out  the  secret  of  Nature  and  know  all.  The 
animals  seem  to  inquire  little,  and  may  be  classified 
according  to  the  signs  they  show,  in  their  several  tribes, 
of  wishing  to  learn.  The  summer-flies  stiffen,  curl 
up,  and  wither  in  the  autumn  wind,  without  any 
apparent  queries  what  death  is,  or  any  dread  of  their 
fate.  Their  incuriosity  marks  the  degree  of  their  in 
feriority.  Our  interest  in  the  subject,  our  constitution 
to  entertain  the  problem,  Job's  desire  to  understand, 
If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  —  is  the  token  of 
immortality  ;  for  it  is  no  creation  of  our  will,  no  fiction 
of  man,  but  the  instigation  of  God,  who  hints  nothing 
he  will  not  carry  out.  Shall  not  the  lower  creatures 
we  lord  it  over,  and  are  so  cruel  to,  have  his  vindica 
tion  also  ?  The  cook  told  the  complaining  duck,  "  Do 
not  cry :  all  these  things  will  be  explained  to  you 
by  and  by."  Of  how  much  we  are  as  ignorant  as  the 
bird  seized  in  the  barn-yard,  or  under  the  doom  of 
the  fowler's  gun ! 


12  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Every  theological  system  or  sect  is  an  attempt  to 
close  questions  ;  and  every  prophet's  word  a  new  erup 
tion  through  the  old  crust  of  conventionality.  The 
denominations  are  so  many  extinct  craters,  only  like 
^Etna  or  Vesuvius  showing  signs  of  activity,  and  every 
little  while  breaking  out  afresh.  What  is  the  deadest 
conservatism  is  only  a  short  lull,  a  temporary  sleep. 
Like  the  son  of  Agamemnon,  the  searching  mind 
comes  terrible  to  purify.  Unitarianism,  Universalism, 
Episcopacy,  the  English  Church,  and  the  Romish,  are 
all  rumbling  with  pent-up  commotions,  and  out  of  the 
fiery  contention  in  their  own  bowels  ready  to  throw  up, 
like  the  aiguilles  round  Mont  Blanc,  rival  summits  of 
belief;  and  any  undertaking  to  shut  up  and  seal  the 
questions  respecting  God  and  man  and  heaven,  Bible 
or  Saviour,  prophecy  or  worship,  is  like  chaining 
down  the  safety-valve  of  the  engine  or  binding  too 
tight  the  breathing-holes  of  the  globe.  Destructive 
explosions,  earthquakes  that  swallow  up  cities,  ensue. 

But  is  every  thing  left  at  loose  ends  like  a  feather  on 
the  wind  ?  No  :  questions  of  doctrine  must  be  open, 
but  questions  of  conscience  closed  before  the  day 
passes,  and  the  opportunity  is  lost.  No  moral  problem 
has  many  links.  Open  questions  in  a  house  about 
trivial  matters  are  like  open  wounds.  Of  what  bits 
we  build  our  heavy  cross !  Do  not  spend  the  day 
discussing  whether  you  shall  drive  or  walk,  invite  a 
guest  or  accept  an  invitation,  wear  white  or  black, 
write  a  letter,  rub  out  a  spot,  be  on  speaking  terms 
with  a  neighbor,  or  have  honest  acquaintance  with 
any  woman  or  man.  Time  is  valuable,  nerves  are 
precious.  "  I  cannot,"  said  a  man,  making  thousands 


OPEN     QUESTIONS.  13 

every  day,  "  consume  my  strength  in  debates  with 
boys  whether  they  shall  steal  my  grapes  or  run  across 
my  shed."  Have  no  open  questions  to  quarrel  about 
and  generate  in  your  affections  chronic  disease.  It  is 
better  to  decide  a  case  wrongly  than  to  get  into  a 
wrong  state  of  mind.  You  are  sincere  and  conscien 
tious  in  your  respective  views :  do  not,  therefore,  be 
tyrannical  to  insist  and  urge  them  past  all  patience, 
and  reopen  the  topic  for  bickering  without  cessation 
or  fruit.  Make  not  your  conscience  a  torment.  The 
worst  thing  in  the  world  may  be  a  man's  conscience, 
or  what,  like  Launcelot  Gobbo,  it  is  his  humor  to 
call  such.  His  sting  is  not  that  of  the  bee  laden 
with  honey,  but  the  barren  wasp.  As  lief  have  a 
hornet  buzzing  round  your  ears,  or  gad-fly  searching 
for  the  sore  spot,  as  a  domestic  or  social  critic  falling 
fatally  on  your  weak  side.  A  duellist  may  be  par 
doned  for  finding  out  the  armor's  open  joint  or  inex 
pert  pass  of  his  adversary ;  but  there  should  be  no 
challenge  between  friends.  Spare  in  your  associate, 
him  or  her  that  leans  on  your  bosom,  the  tender  place. 
Aggravate  not  already  existing  inflammation,  but  heal 
and  soothe.  "  Dwelling  together  in  unity  is  like  oint 
ment,"  says  the  Psalmist :  there  is  no  salve  like  silence, 
and  no  blister  of  mustard  or  Spanish  flies  equal  to  a 
fresh  plaster  of  interrogatory  words.  I  do  not  wonder 
the  poor  Malay  sailor  begged  the  captain  either  to 
whip  or  scold  him,  but  not  do  both  together ;  for 
that,  like  the  multiplication-table  to  Marjorie  Fleming, 
is  what  human  nature  cannot  endure.  People  are 
prosecuted  for  assault  and  battery  ;  but  the  language 
they  fling  is  harder  than  their  fists,  It  is  against  the 


14  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

law  for  private  persons  to  carry  arms  ;  but  what  stiletto 
or  pistol  is  so  dangerous  as  a  tongue?  It  is  harder  to 
hold  than  a  bull  by  the  horns.  I  fancy  that  excellent 
actor,  Walter  Montgomery,  followed  to  England  by 
the  woman  of  ill  repute,  declaring  she  would  be  his 
wife,  who  two  days  after  the  wedding  destroyed  him 
self,  whatever  she  suffered  at  his  hands,  suffered 
something  from  her  lips.  Little  vexations,  more 
than  enormous  crimes,  lay  waste  our  joy,  and  turn 
life  from  a  boon  to  a  ban.  They  say  the  Inquisi- 
.tion  is  abolished  :  it  has  an  emissary  in  every  house. 
The  mosquito  has  an  open  question  whether  he  shall 
insert  his  lancet,  and  take  his  fill  of  your  blood,  which, 
to  settle  the  matter,  you  might  freely  let  him  do,  but 
for  the  host  of  his  peers  on  a  like  surgical  errand 
behind  ;  and  there  is  a  sort  of  mosquito-mind  always 
alert  to  consider  where  most  to  your  disadvantage,  and 
the  security  of  its  satisfaction  against  your  comfort,  it 
can  make  its  petty  attack.  Be  not  that  name  for 
Satan,  the  accuser  of  your  brethren.  Put  your  con 
science  to  private  use.  Keep  it  in  your  closet  for  a 
probe,  not  unsheathe  it  as  a  sword.  The  unhealthy 
action  of  the  human  frame  is  rightly  called  disorder: 
what  shall  be  said  of  those  that  disease  us  with  their 
moral  complaints  and  uncharitable  judgments?  They 
are  authors  of  the  worst  maladies,  and  most  contagious. 
Our  Orthodox  friends  well  bid  us  beware  of  the  plague 
of  our  own  heart ;  for  it  is  catching,  whether  yellow 
fever  and  cholera  be  so  or  not.  Does  anybody  in  your 
circle  desire  to  lead?  Let  him  not  communicate  to 
you  that  itch  !  Ivy  or  the  wild  sumach  is  not  poison 
ous  to  some  vigorous  people.  But  we  do  not  plant 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  15 

the  shrub  or  vine  at  our  door-sill :  we  give  a  wide 
berth  to  the  deadly  night-shade,  even  in  the  pasture  ; 
and  we  learn  to  avoid  folks  who  envenom  us  with 
their  manners  and  speech,  and  by  their  very  glance 
disturb,  as  some  cannot  look  at  or  brush  by  the  evil 
plant  but  their  skin  will  prick  and  swell.  "  This 
creature  worries  the  life  out  of  me,"  said  one,  of  a  dog 
biting  and  scratching  only  in  play.  But  ill-temper 
has  worse  teeth  and  claws  ;  and,  of  all  the  gifts  dis 
tributed  among  human  beings,  the  least  to  be  coveted 
is  the  positive  genius  some  disputatious  persons  have 
for  making  everybody  unhappy,  dealing  in  questions 
only,  and  accepting  no  one's  reply. 

Questions  of  action  and  disposition  are  somehow,  at 
length,  to  be  closed.  I  must  decide  if  I  am  going  in 
the  cars  or  the  steamer.  If  any  temper  of  envy  or 
jealousy  enter  the  lists  and  contest  the  prize,  it  will 
be  master  or  I  shall.  To  settle  moral  questions  is 
safe  ;  for  no  man  ever  decided  to  be  a  drunkard  or 
profligate,  however  sin  take  advantage  of  his  indecision 
to  make  him  a  slave.  Foster's  Essay  on  Decision  of 
Character  was  wise. 

But  questions  of  doctrine  cannot  be  wholly  closed  ; 
because,  first,  words  are  inadequate  to  express  all  the 
truth.  Some  conclusions  about  finite  things  abide 
beyond  any  power  to  shake.  Kepler's  and  Newton's 
laws  of  attraction  hold  like  theorems  in  the  mathe 
matics.  The  effects  of  food  and  poison  on  the  human 
system  are  demonstrable,  though  it  is  disputed  if  alcohol 
be  food  or  medicine.  The  physiological  and  intellect 
ual  analogies  run  further  between  man  and  the  brute 
with  every  day's  investigation ;  and  plants  disclose 


l6  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

similitudes  reminding  one  of  the  classic  Dryads  and 
voices  of  trees  complaining  when  the  limbs  were  torn. 
Iron,  in  the  shape  of  filings  about  the  roots,  is  given 
to  a  pear-tree  to  prevent  or  cure  a  disease  appearing  as 
spots  on  the  fruit,  — just  the  tonic  the  doctor  prescribes 
to  his  patient ;  and  lime  strengthens  it  as  it  does  our 
teeth  and  bones,  while  it  drinks  every  day,  or  like  an 
animated  creature  dies  of  thirst.  But  when  we  come 
to  inquire  what  God  is,  or  the  soul  is,  or  life  or  death 
is,  or  wrhat  we  are  before  or  after  our  mortality,  our 
most  earnest  convictions  cannot  be  precipitated  as  a 
solution  or  projected  like  a  chart.  They  refuse  the 
confinement  of  a  creed.  The  longevity  of  a  dog  or 
horse,  eagle  or  elephant,  is  fixed  ;  but  of  a  spirit  there 
is  no  report.  There  are  no  terms  to  express  it,  or  our 
persuasions  about  it,  unless  we  have  made  up  our  mind 
that  this  mind  is  a  mode  of  matter,  the  phosphorescence 
of  decay,  like  some  vegetable  and  animal  particles  ceas 
ing  to  shine  when  it  ceases  to  rot.  We  can  compass 
the  definite  with  ease.  What  is  done  in  secret  or 
whispered  in  the  ear  in  closets  will  come  abroad  and 
be  published  on  the  house-top  ;  for  an  occurrence  is 
impossible  to  hide,  or  a  noise  to  be  unheard.  Do  not 
tell  anybody,  we  whisper.  It  is  a  vain  request !  It 
will  be  known  because  it  is  a  fact ;  and  every  fact  is 
matter  of  knowledge.  But  the  celestial  realities  defy 
aught  but  a  hint  in  speech.  Because,  says  the  sceptic, 
they  are  so  vague,  have  no  solidity  more  than  moon 
shine.  But  is  moonshine  nothing?  Is  it  less  than  the 
stiff  and  ponderous  clod  ? 

"How  sweet  the  moonlight  sleeps  upon  this  bank!  " 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  1 7 

Lorenzo  in  the  play  showed  Jessica  all  the  orbs  of 
heaven  in  tune  ;  and  the  glories  of  paradise  gleam 
through  this  same  moonshine,  as  you  call  it,  of  the 
mind,  though  you  can  make  no  medium  for  this  light, 
and  no  conductor  for  this  lightning,  of  a  phrase.  Is  it 
all  in  the  Bible  ?  As  well  say  the  electricity  of  Nature 
is  collected  in  a  Leyden  jar,  that  coined  money  has 
exhausted  the  mines  of  Nevada,  or  some  cabinet  con 
tains  all  the  jewels  of  God. 

Spiritual  questions  must  be  open,  secondly,  because 
of  honest  difference  of  belief,  —  open  between  diverse 
persons  as  in  every  single  mind.  Attempts  to  force 
conformity  on  the  ground  of  the  unity  of  truth  imply 
our  possession  of  it,  delinquency  in  whoever  rejects 
our  results,  and  the  right  to  inflict  penalties  for  dis 
agreement  as  a  crime.  Shall  there  be  for  the  iniquity 
of  intolerance  no  punishment?  The  inquisitor  shall 
come  to  question  at  last.  Sure  as  God  ordains  sin 
cerity  of  manifold  conclusions,  the  hierarchs  will  reach 
a  sore  pass  when  the  blood  of  heretics  shall  call  for 
judgment  after  long  crying.  From  prisons  under 
ground,  and  tombs  they  were  walled  into,  above  it 
they  shall  ascend  as  shapes  of  prophets,  for  sentence 
not  from  the  oppressor's  but  the  victim's  mouth.  Some 
time  I  shall  exercise  the  right  you  deny.  Resurrection 
of  the  body  !  A  poor  boon  God  grant  I  may  be  spared  ! 
The  rising  shall  be  of  the  soul  in  every  faculty,  and  of 
that  best  of  its  parts,  free  inquiry.  The  questions 
choked  off  and  strangled,  hushed  with  the  voices  that 
put  them,  shall  return  with  imperial  dignity  of  divine 
permission  and  a  prerogative  of  eternal  satisfaction ; 
and  "what  we  know  not  now  we  shall  know  here- 

2 


1 8  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

after,"  though  other,  greater  things  to  be  known,  sus 
pected  and  half  seen,  tempt  and  beckon  us  on.  It 
will  appear  that  Thought  did  not  perish  on  a  cross, 
and  Freedom  was  not  choked  on  a  scaffold,  and 
Humanity  was  not  beheaded  with  a  sword  ;  that  of 
many  notes  God  made  the  music  false  pretenders  to 
his  confidence  branded  as  discord ;  and  that  heaven 
is  no  monotony,  but,  like  an  earthly  performer's,  the 
great  Harmonizer's  skill  is  measured  by  the  reach  of 
keys  he  can  command. 

The  third  reason  for  keeping  questions  open  is  room 
for  growth.  A  small  plant  is  put  in  a  large  pot  for 
that  spread  of  the  roots  which  will  support  the  spread 
of  the  boughs :  and  truths  are  living  things  that  have 
no  fixed  or  final  shape  and  never  get  their  growth. 
They  stop  only  when  turned  to  timber  and  lumber  of 
creeds.  If  we  must  have  sharply  cut  opinions  to 
make  a  house,  let  us,  like  tasteful  builders,  leave  green 
groves  of  thrifty  speculation  round  our  dogmatic  pre 
cincts.  Fell  not  the  whole  forest :  spare  branches  of 
beauty,  and  boundless  woods  of  mystery.  Reduce 
not  this  marvellous  universe  to  pure  intellectual  prop 
erty,  but  let  wonder  and  worship  have  wild  and  tan 
gled  wildernesses  to  rove  in.  The  Cape-Ann  farmer, 
to  win  a  few  more  acres  of  tillage,  laid  low  the  pine- 
trees  that  girdled  his  land  from  the  sea,  and  found  too 
late  that  the  zone  of  grace  was  a  belt  of  strength.  The 
north-east  winds  and  waves  —  avenging  furies  against 
making  merchandise  of  Nature  —  blew  the  sands  in 
long  hillocks  for  the  burial  of  his  whole  estate.  What 
but  deeper  selfishness,  exposing  to  direr  retribution,  is 
it  to  convert  truth  to  a  title-deed  of  salvation  and  ticket 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  19 

to  a  celestial  seat.  Truth  is  a  thing  to  adore,  to  live 
and  die  for ;  and,  if  it  will  not  rescue,  rejoice  it  counts 
us  worthy  in  its  cause  to  be  cast  away.  But  its  ser 
vice  is  our  privilege,  and  no  sacrifice.  Nobody  ever 
gave  to  it  so  much  as  it  returned.  You  may  survey 
its  field,  run  the  bounds  of  your  persuasions,  limit 
your  inquiries,  and  stereotype  your  prayers,  when  you 
have  measured  the  cords  and  stakes  of  the  Lord's  pa 
vilion.  Not  an  idea  but  should  be  ever  aggrandized, 
most  of  all  your  idea  of  the  Divinity.  An  unchangeable 
God?  He  should  change  continually  in  that  greater 
revelation  which  is  your  growing  up  to  him,  as  Nature 
changes  to  the  learner,  as  Niagara  to  the  gazer,  as 
your  friend  changes  to  your  better  appreciation,  as 
you  change  with  all  aspiration  and  culture,  as  the 
horizon  changes  while  you  mount.  "  Beauty  fled  from 
the  eye,"  writes  Re"nan  of  Palestine,  "  through  the 
gorges  of  the  hills."  So  of  divine  beauty  we  follow 
the  flight. 

But  some  things  are  sealed.  Whether  a  man  shall 
love  his  wife,  or  a  woman  her  husband,  is  not  an  open 
question.  Some  clergymen  will  not  exact,  nor  some 
brides  and  bridegrooms  make  the  promise  to  love,  on 
the  ground  that  love  is  not  in  a  person's  own  power. 
The  noble  religions  of  all  ages  are  under  a  mistake  ! 
Judaism  and  Christianity  falsely  meet  in  the  first 
commandment  of  the  love  of  God,  and  the  second,  to 
"  love  our  neighbor  as  ourself,"  was  but  an  additional 
mockery  from  the  Master's  lips  ;  and  as  all  the  law 
and  the  prophets  hang  on  these,  the  whole  fabric  of 
worship  and  morals  must  give  way,  and  tumble  in 
ruin  for  the  sophistry  of  sense.  This  is  called  affinity. 


20  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

It  is  chemistry  indeed,  above  its  scope  of  senseless 
atoms,  in  the  vital  sphere.  In  Goethe's  story  of  Elec 
tive  Affinities,  with  whatever  licentious  implications, 
death  is  preferred  to  sin.  It  was  left  for  later  teachers 
to  deny  that  love  is  a  duty,,  and  baptize  inclination 
with  sanctity,  on  the  pretence  that  the  affections  suf 
fer  no  control.  Such  immorality  prepense  is  worse 
than  yielding  to  sudden  temptation.  What  libertine 
wants  a  better  apotheosis  !  Many  a  man,  not  of  the 
Mormons,  has  any  number  of  free  loves  in  a  shifting 
polygamy,  without  Solomon's  or  Brigham  Young's 
responsibility.  The  foundations  of  marriage  are  an 
open  question,  but  not  any  husband's  or  wife's  fidelity. 
It  is  time  for  the  policeman  if  it  be.  Whether  I  shall 
love  my  wife  or  my  wife  me  a  subject  of  discussion? 
The  man  that  hesitates  is  adulterous,  the  woman  that 
deliberates  is  lost.  Love  at  my  option  ?  Love  is  a 
law.  Am  I  at  liberty  not  to  love  God  ?  I  am  no  more 
bound  to  love  my  Maker  than  my  partner  or  child. 
Love  is  free  as  a  planet  not  to  leave  its  orbit ;  and 
the  Free  Love  that  refuses  the  gravitation  of  order 
is  a  crime  and  a  curse,  retain  what  male  or  female 
pleader  it  will.  Alas  !  that  woman  should  advocate 
looseness,  —  woman  that  has  been,  more  than  man,  the 
victim  of  changing  fancy,  and  would  find  in  larger 
independence  no  emancipation  for  her  sex,  but  the 
aggravation  of  its  woes.  But  note  the  fundamental 
mistake  of  this  doctrine  of  easy  divorce.  It  is  the 
delusion  that  the  object  of  marriage  is  pleasure,  the 
common-place  question  being  if  one  party  is  going  to 
make  the  other  happy  ;  and,  if  either  fails,  the  missed 
joy  may  be  sought  elsewhere.  But  the  design  of  no 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  21 

relation  of  life  is  gratification,  otherwise  than  by  abne 
gation.  Government,  religion,  society,  is  discipline  as 
well  as  comfort :  the  wedded  state  is  the  same ;  and 
whosoever  seeks  in  it  a  paradise  of  satisfied  wishes 
will  -be  turned  out  of  Eden  with  a  flaming  sword,  like 
Adam  and  Eve.  Love  cannot  be  quite  housed  or 
fenced  in.  But  true  affection  without  or  under  the 
roof  is  no  roving,  but  a  requirement ;  and  he  who 
imagines  his  regards  may  be  flung  round  as  a  prince 
scatters  coin  among  a  crowd  makes  them  a  beggarly 
thing,  and  squanders  the  treasury  of  the  King.  Every 
farthing  of  sentiment  in  my  soul  is  his  property :  I 
am  but  in  trust,  and  must  answer  for  each  item  of 
expenditure  and  atom  of  waste.  Yet  how  the  flood 
gates  of  indulgence  swing !  It  is  time  to  arouse  to  an 
assailant  more  than  robbers  threatening  the  common 
weal :  against  the  deluge  of  wild  propensity,  bulwarks 
and  breakwaters  of  principle  are  more  important  than 
dykes  at  the  inrush  of  seas,  or  props  for  crumbling 
hills.  Consult  the  common  list  of  crimes.  Whence  the 
murders  and  suicides  that  make  the  daily  sheet  ghastly, 
but  from  inordinate  desires?  Whence  the  sympathy 
for  the  criminal,  which  Dr.  Wayland  said  forgets  the 
victim,  but  from  overlooking  obligations  as  essential 
to  progress  as  the  ties  of  a  railway ;  till  murderers,  of 
either  sex,  are  recommended  to  the  mercy  they  never 
showed,  as  if  justice  were  not  kindness  to  all  men,  and 
unfair  or  unadministered  laws  cruelty.  Dreadful  as 
is  capital  punishment,  as  yet  the  shadow  of  the  gal 
lows  must  remain.  Hang  a  woman  ?  Yes :  that  is 
one  of  the  privileges  she  shares  in  the  new  age  with 
man,  if  she  be  unsafe  alive. 


22  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

For  free  preach  lawful  love !  None  other  in  the 
universe  has  title.  God's  love  is  his  law :  he  has  no 
liberty  or  right,  such  as  Calvinism  would  give  him,  to 
hate  or  forsake  his  children,  nor  allows  their  license 
to  leave  each  other.  We  are  under  bonds,  and  shall 
have  no  bail.  If  you  cannot  promise  to  love,  do  not 
wed.  If  I  am  priest,  I  give  notice  I  shall  exact  the 
vow,  which  one  good  woman  insisted  I  should  make 
on  her  part  also  to  obey.  "  Be  married  with  a  ring,  if 
its  gold  circle  be  any  wise  an  added  link.  An  absent 
husband  lost  his  ring,  which  he  said  he  would  rather 
go  home  without  his  finger  than  not  find.  Is  it  on 
your  finger  in  vain  ?  Love  is  a  good  ship,  freighted 
with  human  welfare :  send  her  not  out  with  sails  and 
streamers  only  on  this  stormier  than  Atlantic  sea  of 
our  mortal  life,  but  with  cables  of  principle  and  rud 
der  of  a  righteous  will.  Care  for  the  coming  race  ! 
If  married  people  may,  for  selfish  delight,  violate  their 
pledge,  what  is  the  lesson  to  the  young,  whose  warmer 
passion  has  no  legal  block?  Hold  to  your  covenant 
for  the  sake  of  your  kind.  Of  liberty  we  have  for  the 
present  heard  about  enough.  The  dose  will  last ! 
Tell  us  of  loyalty  now.  Bismarck  to  the  politicians 
said,  "  Is  it  not  well  first  to  ask  of  our  duties  ?  "  when 
they  tired  him  with  talking  about  their  rights.  We 
hear  the  French  are  strict  with  the  young,  but  permit 
the  yoked  to  do  as  they  list.  Well,-  these  latitudina- 
rians  in  America  had  better  emigrate  to  the  city  whose 
majority  is  said  to  be  of  illegitimate  birth.  Relaxed 
authority  is  our  ailment.  All  our  relations  are  lightly 
worn.  Judas,  though  single  and  cut  oft'  by  suicide, 
has  left  a  numerous  tribe ;  and  the  circle  in  Dante's 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  23 

hell  for  traitors  must  be  enlarged.  I  have  lived 
through  two  generations  to  doubt  if  that  one  old  sin 
is  less  common,  —  desertion  ;  and  to  thank  those  who 
did  not  abandon  me.  Time,  that  tries  all  things,  is 
for  our  friendships  what  a  sieve  !  There  is  the  marble 
sculptor,  carving  epitaphs  at  the  corner  of  the  street ; 
but  every  one  of  us  has  a  business  large  as  his  in 
our  heart.  Well,  if  an  image  of  the  resurrection  be 
formed  by  the  inward  chisel !  Happy,  if  the  true- 
hearted  exceed  those  who  have  failed  !  Let  it  be  no 
open  question  if  you  are  such.  Let  your  constancy 
outlast  any  stamp  on  the  document. 

Whether  to  assume  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony  is 
a  question  kept  open  by  too  many  in  our  land,  perhaps 
by  the  at  present  agitated  relations  of  men  and  women 
held  in  abeyance  or  suspense.  But  whether  to  dis 
charge  its  offices,  to  meditate  an  escape  from  its  rela 
tions,  to  have  illicit  intercourse,  or,  with  what  has  been 
called  anatomical  purity,  cleave  in  imagination  to  a 
coveted  mate  not  your  own,  is  not  open  to  any  soul. 

Confound  not  open  questions  with  closed.  Eccle 
siastical  or  political  tyranny,  like  a  retreating  host, 
makes  successive  stands,  as  Lee  at  Gettysburg  fought 
and  ran  by  turns.  But  the  categorical  imperative  of 
Duty  holds  its  own.  What  engagement  to  enter  into 
is  open,  but  not  whether  it  shall  be  kept ;  while  to 
some  obligations  we  are  born.  It  is  getting  to  be 
settled  that  mankind  is  one  community,  and  a  man  may 
choose  his  country  with  no  arm  of  iron  despotism  to 
reach  across  the  sea,  impress  him  into  a  ship  or  reclaim 
him  to  war  for  his  native  soil ;  but  it  does  not  remain 
for  him  to  say  whether  he  will  be  a  good  citizen  of 


24  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  republic  in  which  he  stays.  The  secessionist  was 
doomed  already,  at  Sumter  as  much  as  at  Richmond, 
in  declaring  in  Liberty's  name  his  withdrawal.  My 
friend  yonder,  the  monarchist  in  New  England,  has 
but  this  alternative,  —  to  emigrate,  or  be  a  cipher  where 
he  lives ;  while  the  revolutionist  opens  the  question  of 
government  not  in  orderly  debate,  but  appealing  to 
force.  But  "the  blood-red  blossom  of  war"  is  a  cen 
tury-plant  not  considered  in  regular  culture. 

The  administration,  democratic  or  republican,  is 
open  to  question  and  suspicion,  if  it  hide  from  criti 
cism  and  hush  up  abuse.  Power  tends  to  corruption, 
needs  watching  and  calling  to  account ;  for  party  is 
partiality,  to  be  mistrusted  if  it  cry  out  when  its  doings 
are  looked  into  ;  and  all  New  York  politicians  want 
is  secrecy  for  tracks  of  fraud  whose  uncovering  as 
tounds  the  land.  Why  is  politics  a  name  for  unclean- 
ness,  but  because  every  set  of  men  in  place  become 
thieves,  if  some  opposition  stand  not  guard  ?  O  official, 
are  you  afraid  ?  Then  formidable  is  your  foe.  Why 
startled  at  any  raid,  but  that  something  in  your  plat 
form  or  proceeding — jobs,  commissions,  corporations, 
long  and  costly  sessions  —  will  not  bear  examination, 
and  you  cannot,  as  will  every  upright  man,  welcome 
unfriendly  search  ?  One  thing  pacifies  hostility  and 
disarms  hate,  —  a  record  without  spot.  Put  on  the 
Dread-nought  of  principle  !  Flank  your  enemy  by 
evolution  of  character  :  spike  with  patriotism  his  guns. 
But  he  is  a  dangerous  man !  What  makes  him  dan 
gerous,  if  you  are  right?  Will  the  people  of  the 
commonwealth  or  nation  indorse  and  exalt  a  destruc 
tive,  in  hopes  at  his  hands  of  a  division  of  goods,  a 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  25 

confounding  of  the  worth  and  wages  of  manual  and 
mental  labor,  and  partition  of  property  like  a  pie  cut 
into  equal  pieces  for  all  round  the  board  ?  Incredible 
such  a  ground  of  popularity  in  this  country.  Unjust  to 
the  common  folk  your  alarm.  Universal  suffrage  be 
comes  a  wiser  instrument  and  safer  test  every  year, 
with  each  exercise  making  us  rejoice  we  are  not  ruled 
by  sceptre  or  rank.  I  fear,  says  the  conservative. 
Your  fear  is  no  argument !  I  have  not  learned,  said 
a  statesman,  to  put  my  hand  into  the  Treasury.  You 
are  in  it  yourself,  was  the  reply ;  and  that  man  a 
whole  generation  of  voting  has  not  dislodged. 

Conflict  means  something.  Rival  partisans  use 
strong  words.  I  know  not  what  that  Hebrew  states 
man,  David,  had  encountered  of  objection  to  his  reign, 
when  he  prayed  God  to  hide  him  in  his  pavilion  from 
the  strife  of  tongues ;  but  any  one  who  looks  over  re 
cent  files  of  the  New  York  and  Massachusetts  press  will 
understand  what  a  strain  for  vile  epithets  the  diction 
ary  has  endured,  and  how  the  English  vocabulary  has 
been  milked  to  the  stoppings  for  gall.  Men  balk  not 
to  call  each  other  liars,  thieves,  devils  ;  and  the  charges 
are  taken  quietly,  no  suits  for  libel  instituted,  till  one 
might  think  the  depravity  total,  virtue  quite  gone,  and 
all  the  self-called  patriots  plunderers  and  office-seekers 
alike.  But  the  vilipending  must  be  taken  with  a 
grain  of  salt ;  and  doubtless  that  proverb,  "  The  devil 
is  not  so  black  as  he  is  painted,"  arose  from  extravagant 
abuse  of  not  wholly  base  men.  But  remembering  who 
has  by  enraged  adversaries  been  called  devil  and  dia 
bolical,  from  Jesus  down,  one  may  query  if  it  be  of 
course  so  dishonorable  a  term.  Beside,  Satan  is  a  use- 


26  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ful  person  :  the  Old  Register  informs  us,  in  the  case  of 
Job,  the  Lord  put  him  to  excellent  purpose  to  try  and 
sanctify  his  servant  and  carry  him  from  the  temptations 
of  earthly  prosperity  through  the  hell  of  disgrace  and 
pain  into  a  heaven  of  purity  and  peace  beyond  his  first 
estate.  Through  a  like  needed  Purgatory,  by  that  par 
ticular  individual  you  consider  your  Beelzebub,  you 
may  be  led.  If  any  set  of  men  in  public  life  pass 
muster  with  such  an  antagonist,  and  come  out  of  the 
mangle  with  clean  hands,  and  no  indelible  stains,  the 
agent  will  deserve  something  else  than  utter  condemna 
tion  and  scorn.  Will  it  wash?  you  ask,  of  the  dry 
goods.  Some  things  very  hard  !  In  Dante's  Inferno 
one  class  of  demons  handles  for  others  the  penal  fires, 
plunging  them  with  forks  into  the  lake  of  burning 
pitch.  Set  a  rogue  to  catch  a  rogue.  One  political 
hand  must  wash  the  other :  the  Ins  and  the  Outs  are 
the  two  hands,  and  purifiers  must  be  respected  as  well 
as  saints. 

Is  it  an  open  question  whether  women  shall  vote  ? 
Not  quite,  as  they  already  do  so  in  benevolent  societies, 
church-meetings,  and  educational  enterprises,  it  only 
remaining  to  complete  their  claim  in  civil  affairs ;  and 
at  every  caucus  and  convention  the  favor  of  the  grow 
ing  number  asserting  it  is  put  up  at  auction,  time  only 
being  requisite  to  decide  what  party  will  make  the 
highest  bid.  Without  dogmatism  in  the  case,  or  pre- 
judgment  of  the  issue,  the  defenders  of  woman's  right 
may  ask  a  better  argument  against  it  than  that  of  expe 
diency,  and  alarm  that  more  Irish  women  than  Anglo- 
Saxon  would  rush  to  the  polls.  Nay,  considering  how 
on  the  ballot  our  destinies  hang,  and  over  what  filthy 


OPEN    QUESTIONS.  2j 

floors  we  tread  with  our  fate  in  our  grasp,  should  we 
not  anticipate  the  plea  that  women  must  be  dragged  in 
the  dirt  to  the  shrine  where  law  and  justice  are  to  be 
sacrificed  or  saved,  by  substituting  for  ward-rooms  and 
dens  noble  buildings  as  the  suffrage-deposit,  making 
palaces  of  our  polls  ?  If  it  be  a  true  figure  to  speak 
of  the  temple  of  our  liberties,  there  is  no  cathedral 
more  solemn  or  fit  for  worship  than  the  place  where 
they  are  to  be  maintained. 


II. 

INDIVIDUALISM. 

WHAT  curious  imputation  of  human  contrivance 
to  God  was  the  old  notion  of  his  scheme  of 
salvation,  in  which,  like  the  bits  of  paper  we  try  to 
make  a  rectangle  of,  all  the  verses  of  the  Bible  were 
parts  of  the  puzzle.  A  little  larger  word  is  used  when 
liberal  believers  talk  of  the  Christian  system.  But  that, 
too,  implies  "a  fence  Jesus  never  put  up.  A  man  does 
not  accomplish  much  under  keepers ;  and  no  great 
thing  was  ever  said  or  done  in  sight  of  limits,  or  within 
bounds  other  than  of  thought  itself.  By  what  pre 
scribed  rule  did  Raphael  make  that  Dresden  Madonna, 
the  child  in  whose  arms  is  King  of  men  ?  After  what 
photograph  did  Michael  Angelo,  in  the  Sistine  Chapel, 
copy  that  creation  of  Eve  it  takes  the  breath  away  to 
look  at,  and  of  which  one  said  he  did  not  see  how 
the  Florentine  artist  could  have  been  descended  from 
that  first  woman,  the  mother  of  all,  whom  he  himself 
conceived  ? 

There  are  in  art  or  nature  no  walls.  The  autumnal 
maple  I  saw  all  alone  in  the  field,  a  flame  of  fire  from 
the  bottom  to  the  top,  was  the  very  burning-bush 
Moses  saw,  and  it  shone  all  the  way  to  and  from 


INDIVIDUALISM.  29 

Egypt  while  I  looked.  When  the  love  of  God  visits 
me  with  its  glow,  there  are  no  longer  chambers  in  my 
heart,  but  space  for  all  mankind.  I  have  seen  people 
scowl  at  finding  strangers  in  their  seats  in  church,  and 
have  heard  of  nails  driven  in  the  railing  to  indicate  to 
the  sexton  none  but  members  of  the  proprietor's  house 
should  be  admitted.  But  doors  are  leaving  desk  and 
pew,  as  Father  Taylor  said  his  pulpit  had  none ;  and 
the  street  crowds  into  the  slips  of  temple  and  theatre 
for  sermons  and  prayers,  without  money  or  price. 
Broad  Church  and  Low  Church  supersede  High 
Church.  Faith  is  genuine  as  it  is  generous.  Make 
a  dogma  or  tenet  of  it,  and  it  is  lost.  I  find,  said  my 
friend,  the  more  I  reason  about  immortality,  the  less  I 
believe  it.  Throw  yourself  on  your  instinct,  trust  your 
vision,  give  your  life  to  your  Author  and  race,  and  you 
will  not  doubt.  The  sceptics  about  God  and  heaven, 
however  polite  and  complaisant,  will  be  found  in  the 
last  analysis  self-seekers,  and  no  devotees  of  their  kind. 
Does  one  withdraw  from  you  and  enact  the  disloyal 
friend,  you  will  find  he  lives  on  the  surface,  and  de 
grades  all  realities  into  problems.  Not  himself  one 
with  God,  what  wonder  his  very  adhesiveness  should 
be  untempered  mortar,  soft  solder  for  solid  support. 
Say  to  him,  All  the  distance  between  us  you  make  :  I 
but  keep  on  the  line,  trying  to  reach  you  if  I  can. 
Freedom  of  thought  and  freedom  of  fellowship  are 
the  same.  What  blunder  identifies  free-thinking  with 
infidelity,  when  it  is  the  only  path  by  which  conviction 
ever  visited  the  human  soul  ?  The  time  is  at  hand  for 
those  branded  as  unbelievers  to  be  counted  warmer 
votaries  of  truth  than  popes  and  cardinals  and  priests. 


3O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

It  is  true,  in  all  common  interests,  from  a  handful  of 
men  to  the  millions  of  a  nation,  we  must  co-act,  and 
have  organizers  as  well  as  idealists.  Yet  all  institutions 
must  be  mended  by  the  thought  they  spring  from,  or 
abolished  by  a  better  thought.  But  to  change  an  or 
ganic  habit  is  hard,  and  attended  with  agonies  that 
threaten  dissolution.  The  reformer  is  always  ruiner  ; 
though  Church  and  State  have  by  civil  and  religious 
doctors  been  ruined  so  many  times,  still  to  thrive,  as  do 
trees  once  felled,  out  of  their  mangled  or  rotting  stumps, 
that  all  croaking  sounds  like  that  of  the  ravens  sent 
with  food  to  Elijah.  Our  Constitution  will  get  aground 
often,  said  an  old  statesman,  but  there  will  be  always 
somebody,  like  the  man  on  the  banks  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  who  pushes  the  raft  from  the  shore.  Cassar  in 
power  may  well  complain  that  u  Cassius  thinks  too 
much ; "  but  the  thinker  is  saviour.  What  slow  and 
cumbrous  processes  men  use  at  first !  Self-interest  of 
operatives,  whose  livelihood  depends  on  present  meth 
ods,  resists  improvement.  But  a  thought  from  some 
brain,  mightier  than  an  army,  steps  softly  in,  and  the 
old  style  gives  place  to  a  new,  though  the  light  of 
burning  mills  leads  the  inventor,  showing  where  past 
discovery  made  its  way.  The  announcers  of  principle 
give  the  oil  of  life  to  the  lamp  that  illuminates ;  and, 
like  the  captain  feeding  the  boiler  with  his  freight, 
throw  their  flesh  and  bones  into  the  fire  that  warms 
and  impels  mankind.  We  suspect  the  seer,  and  despise 
visionaries  as  unpractical.  But  there  is  not  a  comfort 
in  our  house,  article  of  food  or  clothing,  harvest  of  the 
field  or  preparation  of  the  kitchen,  grain  of  wheat  for 
the  grist  or  of  powder  for  grinding  the  foe,  but  is  at 


INDIVIDUALISM.  3! 

first  the  pure  potentiality  they  perceived  and  contrived 
and  combined.  A  man — Erastus  B.  Bigelow — is  still 
alive,  to  whose  wit  the  factories  in  Massachusetts  owe 
a  debt  exceeding  a  thousand-fold  the  sum  he  received. 
What  is  a  railway  but  an  embodiment  of  conceptions, 
once  non-existent  outside  the  solitary  heads  they  visited, 
putting  on  a  wood  and  iron  dress  to  walk  abroad  in. 
Yankee  notions  alter  the  world.  All  imperfection 
comes  from  want  of  thorough  thought.  When  that 
stops  or  lags,  and  the  mind's  eye  winks  at  faults  or 
defects  in  the  machinery  or  manipulation,  injury  ensues. 
Intellectual  blindness  hurts  and  slays  more  than  any 
ill  intent.  Peering  into  the  wreck  of  the  late  disaster 
on  the  road,  what  do  we  see?  That  a  true  time-table, 
making  no  noise;  a  telegram,  sped  in  an  instant;  the 
silent  step  of  a  watchman  sent  back  ;  an  understanding 
between  conductors,  —  would  have  kept  above  the  sod 
a  precious  score  now  under  it ;  that  if  kerosene  is  not 
safe  in  a  quiet  parlor,  it  is  dangerous  in  a  jolting  car ; 
that  a  good  supply  of  rolling  stock  for  emergencies 
might  hinder  the  confusion  of  arrangement,  ending  in 
the  chaos  of  destruction.  But  alas  !  all  these  thoughts 
came  too  late.  Because  they  were  tardy,  the  trains 
were  !  As  I  looked  at  the  heap  of  burnt  and  battered 
bits  of  iron  near  the  station,  rusting  in  the  rain,  all 
that  from  the  catastrophe  the  flames  had  left,  I  shud 
dered  to  think  by  how  little  reflection  that  melancholy 
monument,  lying  so  still  a  reminder  of  anguish  untold, 
might  have  been  spared. 

But  what  application  have  such  illustrations  to  the 
working  and  apparatus  of  forms  and  creeds?  There 
is  no  peril  in  the  running  of  a  denominational  estab- 


32  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

lishment.  No  matter  what  a  man  thinks  in  religion, 
only  how  he  lives  !  Men  are  praised  who  never  attack 
sects  they  do  not  belong  to  ;  and  if  they  cannot  speak 
well  of  others,  say  nothing  at  all.  We  must  answer, 
the  spiritual  exceeds  the  utilitarian  importance  of 
thought,  in  proportion  as  moral  culture  is  of  more 
moment  than  a  patent  reaper,  mowing-machine,  steam- 
engine,  or  cotton-gin  ;  for  these  are  all  but  the  mind's 
servants,  serving  it  ill  if  it  have  unworthy  aims.  Is 
the  telegraph  a  blessing  when  fraud  or  tyranny  controls 
the  wires,  and  they  terminate  in  Napoleon's  ante-cham 
ber?  Is  travelling  unmixed  good?  Half  of  us  were 
better  at  home !  Where  are  you  in  your  worship  ? 
Whither  drawn  by  the  locomotive  of  will  ?  What  sort 
of  engineer  is  your  conscience  ?  What  is  the  latitude 
and  longitude  of  your  course  toward  the  angelic  isles  ? 
The  disciples  left  all  and  followed  Jesus.  It  was  a 
splendid  speculation.  To  be  shrewd  operators,  we 
might  be  content  to  part  with  our  lands  and  bonds, 
and  take  neither  purse  nor  scrip,  for  one  degree  of 
progress  and  character,  or  surer  beholding  of  our  end. 
There  are  opinions  on  these  matters  we  are  wronged 
and  put  back  by. 

Take  some  examples.  The  Lord's  Supper  as  a  line 
between  sinners  and  saints  is  no  harmless  ceremony, 
but  a  snare  of  hypocrisy,  a  trap  of  pretence,  or  a  reef 
which  thousands  taking  for  a  harbor  have  been  cast 
away  on.  A  profession  of  religion  hinders  practice. 
A  certain  prophet  foretold  that  removing  the  land 
mark  between  church  and  congregation,  and  seal 
ing  up  the  book  of  communicants,  would  destroy 
Liberal  Christianity,  though  Paul  said  eating  would 


, 


or  T 
UNIVERSITY 

X  OF 

INDIVIDUALISM.  33 

not  make  us  better,  or  abstaining  worse.  His  predic 
tion  failed. 

Regarding  the  Bible  as  so  much  dried  pemmican, 
a  little  of  which  every  day  is  a  sufficient  ration  for  the 
soul,  classifies  chafT  and  wheat,  with  some  poison,  to 
gether.  Who  reads  the  Book  through  now  and  holds 
all  the  parts  of  Hebrew  literature  from  a  hundred  pens 
of  equal  worth,  save  such  as  the  old  Bibliolatry  still 
besots  ?  Is  it  pious  or  blasphemous  to  put  Deuteronomy 
with  the  Gospels,  David's  curses  with  Christ's, beati- 
tudes,  or  Jewish  retaliation  with  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount?  A  theory  which  constructs  a  gilded  idol  of 
the  whole  Scripture,  to  be  multiplied  by  myriads  as  the 
sole  condition  of  salvation,  and  be  a  pledge  of  security 
because  it  adorns  the  table  or  cumbers  the  shelf,  is  a 
bane.  We  have  against  it  only  the  dishonest  security 
of  a  quiet  agreement  to  let  Kings  and  Chronicles, 
wrathful  prophecies  and  illogical  epistles,  go  by  de 
fault  while  we  attend  to  parables  and  psalms ;  or  else 
of  an  ingenious  arguing  of  truth  into  the  letter  and 
falsehood  out.  But  children  and  the  simple,  unable  to 
understand  this,  are  exposed  to  mischief  still.  It  was 
said  of  a  certain  politician,  He  is  all  brass.  But  the 
prayer-book  betrays  a  composition  so  like  Nebuchad 
nezzar's  image,  no  wonder  good  churchmen  can  endure 
the  contradiction  no  longer,  but  must  have  a  purged 
liturgy,  —  as  I  remember  Ephraim  Peabody  sought  in 
vain  to  correct  the  comparatively  pure  version  of  the 
King's  chapel,  which  an  Englishman  said  was  the  old 
one  watered,  but  my  friend  answered  was  the  old  one 
washed  ;  and  needs  washing  a  little  more. 

What  so  absurd  as  a  prayer  for  deliverance  from 
3 


34  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

sudden  death  !  The  article  of  death  is  always  sudden  ; 
and  if  the  sentence  deprecated  is  of  death  in  the  ful 
ness  of  one's  powers,  is  not  that  what  everybody 
should  crave?  What  is  decline?  All  that  is  sad,  or 
casts  a  shadow  into  the  prospect  of  old  age.  How 
clear  an  image  of  blessed  departure  is  Scott's  from 
the  set  of  the  tropical  sun ! 

"  No  pale  gradations  quench  his  ray." 

How  many  covet  going  at  once  rather  than  drag  to  the 
grave !  He  that  fell  by  lightning  was  held  by  the 
ancients  — 

"  Favored  man  by  touch  ethereal  slain." 

James  Otis  wished  and  had  such  fate.  Job  begged 
not  protracted  existence,  but  hunted  after  the  grave 
and  wanted  it  to  open  at  his  feet.  If  the  reader 
has  not,  the  writer  has  seen  many  an  hour  when  death, 
but  that  wisdom  withheld  it,  would  have  been  a  boon. 
It  pleases  God  to  call  many  suddenly :  why  pray 
against  his  decree?  Of  one  whose  genius  years  do 
not  dim,  it  was  said,  he  will  fall  like  a  pine-tree,  he 
will  dry  up  and  blow  away,  or  creep  into  some  nook  ; 
he  will  not  die,  nor  any  man  know  his  sepulchre. 
What  better  for  Gannett,  spinning  out  his  last  fibre, 
turning  the  wheel  when  no  more  wool  was  on  the 
spindle,  than  Elijah's  chariot  of  fire?  The  version  of 
the  original  form  into  "  death  unprepared  for  "  scarce 
improves  it.  Not  death,  but  life  is  the  thing  to  pre 
pare  for.  Why  notice  that  which  Christ  abolished? 
The  idea  that  God  changes,  turns  his  face  from  the 
sinner  who  passes  unreconciled,  takes  beyond  any 
profane  swearing  his  name  in  vain.  No  repentance 


INDIVIDUALISM.  35 

or  hope  beyond  the  death-bed?  As  the  tree  falleth  it 
must  lie?  The  human  soul  is  not  a  fallen  tree  !  The 
best  repentance  for  the  worst  transgressor  or  most 
precious  saint  is  after  earthly  decease,  and  Watts's 
line  is  true  of  neither,  — 


'Fixed  in  an  eternal  state;' 


for  it  were  a  fine  degradation  of  the  future  to  annul 
there  the  law  of  progress  which  is  the  sole  comfort 
here. 

Let  such  cases  suffice  to  illustrate  how  thought  may 
act  as  a  solvent  on  the  chronic  prejudice  of  an  invet 
erate  phrase.  Is  not  more  or  better  steam  welcome  ? 

0  ye  who  run  the  machine  of  religion,  hate  not  those 
who  supply  new  motive   power ;    and   let   organizers 
suffer  search  into  the  basis  of  organization,  as  men  are 
employed  on  the  iron  road  with  their  clinking  ham 
mers  to  test  the  wheels.     Not  what  excites,  but  incites 
us,  is  the  point.     Are  you  rid  of  ambitious  incentive, 
of  all  desire   to   sound  or  shine,  and   sing  Monckton 
Milnes'   "  Lay  of  the    Humble "  ?       Can   you  resign 
leadership  and  refuse  following?     Can  you  hold  appe 
tite  from  lusting  and  your  tongue  from  reply?     Then 

1  care  not  for  your  theological  name  :   your  connection 
is  with  every  worthy  spirit  to  which  the  universe  gives 
breath. 

Orthodoxy  substitutes  legality  for  love.  God  can 
not  remit  his  law  of  eternal  perdition  to  the  race  for 
their  ancestor's  first  offence ;  Jesus  pays  the  penalty 
with  his  blood,  and  the  ransomed  get  into  heaven  on 
the  ground  of  right  in  his  merit  with  the  Judge  to 
whom  he  stands  bail  and  pays  the  fine.  Observe  the 


36  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

effect  on  character  of  this  forensic  view.  Severe  dea 
cons  and  strict  members  of  the  church  keep  the  letter 
at  the  expense  of  the  spirit  of  their  contract,  carrying 
their  divine  scheme  into  human  covenants,  as  Shak- 
speare  makes  Shylock  quote  Jacob's  trick  about  the 
cattle  to  excuse  his  own  greed.  What  signifies  my 
neighbor's  heading  the  list  of  communicants  in  good 
standing,  if,  as  the  standard  of  his  proceeding,  to  the 
law  of  equity  he  prefers  the  law  of  the  land  ?  Why 
should  he  not?  Why  should  he  be  liberal  and  humane, 
or  just  in  the  large  sense  of  doing  as  he  would  be  done 
by,  when  the  God  he  worships  is  so  sharp  ?  No  :  let 
him  encroach,  run  out  his  lines  against  my  light  and 
air,  return  robbery  for  my  bestowment,  and,  wherever 
he  can,  do  the  legal  thing  that  is  immoral  and  unchris 
tian,  and  without  breaking  the  statute  take  the  lion's 
share  !  He  has  no  higher  law.  He  is  as  good  as  a 
God  on  whom  his  own  children  have  no  claims  he 
is  bound  to  respect,  who  forms  one  vessel  to  honor 
and  another  to  dishonor.  But,  said  my  friend,  God  is 
not  a  potter. 

The  critic  of  what  is  popular  is  asked  what  he 
proposes  instead :  it  is  a  malefaction  to  give  nothing, 
but  only  to  take  away.  But  as  a  decaying  structure  is 
mended  piece-meal,  as  a  living  organism  is  perpetual 
substitution  of  particle  for  particle,  so  no  system  of 
opinion  comes  or  goes  by  human  will  or  at  once,  but 
by  working  through  periods  of  a  divine  law,  one  of 
whose  executors  is  every  honest  objector,  and  which 
Jesus  fulfilled  for  his  times  not  only  by  positive  state 
ment  but  by  finding  fault.  The  trellis  a  vine  clam 
bers  on  is  not  torn  away  ;  but,  if  it  be  not  repaired, 


INDIVIDUALISM.  37 

it  will  rot  and  the  vine  fall.  Ever  and  anon  a  voice  is 
lifted,  We  have  had  criticism  enough :  construction 
is  in  order  now.  I  answer,  The  two  must  go  together. 
Unitarianism  fancies  it  is  the  last  landing-place,  the 
pillars  of  Hercules  every  voyager  must  stop  at,  though 
seas  and  continents  of  truth  lie  beyond.  But  the  horned 
bull  of  Fanaticism  is  not  slain  yet.  If  the  Rationalist 
has  been  the  picador,  the  Radical  must  be  the  matadore 
in  the  unfinished  fight.  It  is  held  dangerous  to  unset 
tle  a  common  faith.  Not  if  it  is  unsettled  by  thought ! 
Better  unsettle  your  house  in  season  if  it  rest  on  the 
sand.  Is  it  dangerous  to  disturb  a  bad  style  of  build 
ing,  an  uneven  railway,  or  any  defective  machine? 
We  do  it  that  we  may  be  safe.  He  is  the  very  devil, 
said  one  of  a  Road  President  who  was  efficient.  Is 
security  of  less  moment  for  the  soul  ?  W^hat  is  salva 
tion?  Not  escape  from  hell,  but  entry  of  bliss.  I 
will  not  carry  my  blame  of  an  opinion  into  my  treat 
ment  of  the  man.  There  is  a  Public  Garden  of  Human 
ity  where  all  may  meet :  there  is  to  be  a  Museum  of 
Art  and  an  atonement  of  Beauty.  There  is  another 
Common  than  that  within  the  iron  fence.  As  Radical 
and  Reactionist  can  enjoy  a  flower,  a  picture,  or  pros 
pect  together,  so  the  universal  Creator  opens  vistas 
either  way  of  memory  and  hope,  through  which,  des 
pite  side  glances  at  their  respective  premises,  they  can 
gaze  on  destiny  and  glory  together. 

For  all  the  dogmatism  is  so  stiff,  it  does  not  lie  very 
deep.  It  is  a  crust,  a  clod,  or  hard  pan  under  which, 
in  everybody,  we  break  into  fertile  soil.  With  theo- 
logic  as  with  social  gossips,  what  an  automaton  is  the 
tongue!  How  true  the  proverb  of 'its  being  hung  on 


38  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

wires  !  What  a  perpetual  motion  is  the  repetition  of 
a  creed,  whose  articles  to  the  Protestant  are  like  the 
Catholic  beads  ;  and  how  deceptive  the  voice  they  are 
proclaimed  by,  which  crowds  hang  on  for  its  resonance 
and  animal  heat,  three-fourths  of  the  ardor  being  of 
the  body  not  the  soul,  and  the  speaker  being  only 
an  additional  stove  or  furnace  in  the  house  !  When  I 
consider  the  nature  of  what  my  admiration  is  chal 
lenged  for,  how  the  famous  pulpit-orator  may  go  to 
his  audience  with  nothing  to  say,  and  with  what  seem 
ing  delight  it  is  heard,  the  fervor  seems  a  kind  of 
insanity,  such  as  populations  and  nations  are  touched 
with  in  some  illusory  expectation  or  aim,  —  like  that 
French  foolishness  insisting  the  downfall  of  Paris  was 
impossible,  which,  made  into  a  compound  battery  for 
Victor  Hugo  to  handle,  did  not  avail  against  the 
German  guns,  though  an  English  writer  calls  it  the 
most  vital  vanity  in  the  world. 

The  congregation,  you  tell  me,  was  great.  Large  it 
often  is,  and  hundreds  have  to  go  away.  But  to  what 
purpose  ?  There  are  huge  gatherings  at  concerts  and 
theatres  and  fire-works  and  menageries  and  jugglers' 
shows,  and  on  the  Exchange.  Let  me  celebrate  the 
thin  house  !  It  may  be  a  question  whether,  throughout 
the  world's  history,  more  has  not  been  done  with  few 
present  than  with  many.  Two  or  three  in  sympathy 
were  enough  to  persuade  Christ's  attendance.  It  is 
a  strange  fact  that  the  performer's  power  often  redu 
plicates  with  the  diminution  of  the  throng.  He 
becomes  more  natural  and  simple,  ambition  for  effect 
dies,  the  inordinate  stimulus  that  sometimes  the  actor 
is  not  inspired  but  maddened  and  prematurely  killed 


INDIVIDUALISM.  39 

by  is  withdrawn  :  the  Spirit  comes  ;  and,  for  a  lunatic 
distracted  with  conceit  of  his  importance,  we  have  an 
organ  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  What  joy  and  upbuilding 
we  remember  in  small  companies,  beyond  superficial 
transport  of  crowds  in  the  laughing  gas  of  ecclesiastical 
vapor  they  breathe  !  We  search  too  much  for  God  in 
the  upper  void.  He  is  under  foot  as  well  as  overhead, 
in  the  hell  of  our  privation  as  in  the  heaven  of  bliss, 
in  my  conscience  and  my  friend's  heart  more  than 
among  the  stars.  The  earth  as  well  as  the  air  is  the 
Lord's  :  let  us  respect  the  earth  in  us  of  which  he  made 
us,  as  well  as  the  soul  he  blew  into  our  nostrils.  O 
invalid,  who  hast  spun  thy  brains  into  the  web  of  thy 
fancy,  the  Divinity  inhabits  the  world  of  fact.  Become 
worldly-minded,  a  man  of  the  world,  as  your  neighbor 
is  too  much  and  you  not  enough.  Pine  no  longer 
among  thy  theories.  Leave  thy  pillar,  touch  the  earth 
and  arise  strong.  "  Let  your  parish  go,"  said  Aber- 
nethy  to  worn-out  Dr.  Tuckerman,  "  and  build  a  barn." 
Moiling  in  the  dust,  striking  on  the  ledge,  blasting  for 
a  cellar,  raising  the  house,  I  build  up  beside  my  dwell 
ing  my  nervous  system,  and  learn  that  the  Deity  I 
was  soaring  after  had  not  left  the  ground.  When  I 
can  live  close  to  my  mason  and  carpenter,  abide  near 
any  human  being  without  jar,  I  am  with  Him.  Have 
your  own  way,  you  will  live  the  longer,  we  say.  Yes, 
when  it  is  the  King's  highway  of  brotherly  love. 

But  let  Freedom  be  understood.  It  is  no  indeter- 
mination,  but  thinking  and  acting  according  to  law. 
America  borrowed  from  France  her  political  ideas. 
But  the  old  French  triumvirate  —  Liberty,  Equality,  and 
Fraternity  —  have  fallen  out.  Say  the  Communists, 


4-O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

"  We  do  not  want  liberty,  but  equality."  Equality,  like 
my  friend's  serpent  that  ate  up  the  brother  he  was  caged 
\vith,  has  devoured  Liberty ;  Fraternity  will  be  but  a 
side-dish  in  the  same  meal.  Labor  against  capital  is 
the  form  the  new  strife  takes  which  is  to  have  the  next 
century  for  its  battle-field  ;  and,  among  the  passions 
that  shall  thunder,  there  will  be  need  of  thought. 
We  may  find  no  "  glittering  generality  "  or  "  blazing 
ubiquity,"  but  a  half-truth  apt  to  false  applications,  in 
the  doctrine  of  all  men's  equality  by  birth  in  any  power 
or  for  any  lot.  There  is  no  freedom  but  in  order, 
harmony,  the  mutual  adjustment  of  all  according  to 
their  several  ability  and  worth.  "  The  career  open  to 
talents,"  said  Napoleon  ;  exercised,  we  must  add,  for 
the  common  weal.  We  learn  from  M.  Coquerel  that 
the  late  incendiarism  in  Paris,  arose  from  the  insane 
principle  of  destroying  capital,  as  though  it  were  not 
a  crib  at  which  all  men  feed.  In  the  Communists 
pulling  down  the  column  in  the  Place  Vendome  to 
signify  the  end  of  war  among  the  peoples  of  the  globe, 
by  self-sacrifice  of  national  glory  to  the  idea  of  universal 
peace,  there  was  something  sublime;  and  when  they 
burned  the  guillotine  before  the  statue  of  Voltaire,  to 
symbolize  the  end  of  its  red  executions,  society  seemed 
growing  more  humane.  But  the  enterprise  of  striking 
a  level  of  human  fortunes,  Procrustes  coming  again  to 
dock  the  long  stature  and  stretch  the  short,  will  cause 
more  woe  with  its  brutal  average  than  it  will  close. 
The  crevice  when  it  is  opened,  as  Dr.  Beecher  said 
of  the  old  Revolution,  will  run  blood.  Such  inter- 
nationality  will  be  no  advance,  but  another  fall  of  man 
to  the  savage  state,  and,  by  removing  motive  to  toil,  an 


INDIVIDUALISM.  41 

exchange  of  riches  for  general  poverty  and  want.  The 
excess  of  impulse  in  the  last  decade,  which  has  shaken 
either  hemisphere  more  than  earthquakes,  needs  reason 
to  be  its  moderator,  regulator,  and  safety-valve. 

We  want  to  know  not  only  what  to  do,  but  what 
not  to  do  or  say.  Socrates  says  his  Demon  told  him 
where  to  stop. 

"As  fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread," 

how  often  impertinent  interference  and  superservice- 
able  suggestion  make  us  wish  that  Demon  might  come 
back !  Would  the  mediums  that  converse  with  Soc 
rates  be  good  enough  to  hint  to  the  old  philosopher 
how  we  should  thank  him  for  sending  into  the  world 
once  more  that  useful  governor  of  his  mental  machine  ? 
At  present,  no  benefactor  could  surpass  this  interior 
conscience,  sitting  secret,  like  Maelzel's  automaton,  and 
at  every  false  move  in  the  game  of  human  life  saying, 
Check.  "  In  four  cases  out  of  five,"  said  a  great  physi 
cian,  "  we  help  a  patient  best  by  doing  nothing,  and 
the  chief  rule  is  not  to  move  or  prescribe  anywise  with 
out  surety  of  benefit."  The  doctors  of  our  sick  society 
might  well  heed  the  lesson.  Said  my  medical  adviser, 
"  The  most  I  can  do  is  to  tell  you  how  to  keep  out  of 
harm's  way."  Give  nature  a  chance  to  rally !  He 
that  abounds  in  political  specifics,  and  meddles  most 
with  human  nature,  is  a  worse  quack  than  medical 
societies  banish.  So-called  cure  is  the  main  generator 
of  disease. 

Our  raging  publicity  overlooks  the  value  of  private 
counsel.  From  some  individual  comes  the  saving 
word.  It  is  always  proscribed  as  individualism  till  it 


42  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

becomes  the  common  sense.  But  the  deliverer  is  the 
superior  soul,  communicant  with  the  Supreme  to  con 
vey  its  wisdom  to  half-unwilling  recipients ;  one  that 
shares  neither  the  panic  of  the  multitude  nor  their 
zeal,  but  has  a  heart  beating  for  his  kind,  and  is  in 
his  opponents'  citadel  the  friend  of  their  own  secret 
respect. 

"Thy  soul  was  like  a  star  and  dwelt  apart," 

wrote  Wordsworth  of  Milton,  from  whom  shone  the 
beams  of  republican  liberty  brighter  than  Orion  for  all 
men.  Of  want  of  leaders,  there  is  much  talk ;  and 
the  leaders,  when  they  come,  are  often  but  persons 
magnetized  by  some  epidemic  impression  or  prevailing 
superstition,  like  a  certain  captain  who  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  an  officerless  regiment  at  Bull  Run, 
and  simply  went  with  them  to  Washington  in  their 
rout.  Our  civil  and  religious  commanders  are  men 
catching  the  contagion  of  any  troop  that  marches  by, 
intent  on  victory  or  retreat.  The  ducal  power  on  the 
field  is  not  in  those  who  give  the  loud  orders  and  ride 
in  uniform,  but  in  some  unseen  Moltke  or  silent  Grant. 
So  in  faith  and  morals,  not  by  the  marshals  and  plat 
form-orators,  but  thinkers  we  are  led.  Such  let  us 
cherish  as  the  apple  of  our  eye  ;  and  not  measure  their 
merit  by  their  power  to  push  and  multiply  themselves 
in  men's  sight.  Mr.  Pierpont  said  of  Dr.  Channing, 
"  Put  him  into  the  street  to  shift  for  himself  and  make 
his  living,  and  he  would  die."  But  we  knew  his 
quality,  and  would  no  more  have  put  him  into  the 
street  than  thrown  out  our  mirror  or  spy-glass.  Is 
physical  strength  —  to  work  and  lift,  hoist  or  farm,  fish 


INDIVIDUALISM.  43 

or  build  —  the  gauge  of  a  man  ?  How  with  those  that 
poise  the  telescope  in  the  observatory,  watch  the  cur 
rents  of  air  and  sea,  predict  the  storms  and  cyclones, 
make  coast  surveys,  calculate  eclipses,  and  run  the 
lines  of  danger  and  refuge  for  ships  on  our  maps  and 
charts?  "All  things  in  common"  was  a  shallow,  tran 
sient  rule.  Equalize  tasks  or  goods  when  you  can 
equalize  gifts.  We  did  not  put  Channing  to  the 
plough-handle,  but  to  the  pulpit  and  the  pen.  He 
did  braver  things  than  carry  a  musket  to  load  and  fire. 
It  is  not  always  the  stalwart  whom  in  the  trial  we 
can  trust.  The  woman  who,  when  the  Life  Boatmen 
were  afraid,  and  refused  to  venture  out  to  the  wreck 
on  the  Irish  shore,  went  alone  in  her  little  skiff  and 
rescued  the  last  survivor  through  the  boiling  surf, 
proved  that  something  more  than  muscle  is  called  for 
in  the  dreadful  hour,  and  had  a  right  to  vote  all  those 
cravens  down. 

A  perfect  development  is,  doubtless,  not  only  the 
complete  beauty  of  a  human  creature,  but  the  condi 
tion  of  the  highest  health  of  each  particular  faculty.  I 
fancy  my  friend's  metaphysical  glance  would  not  be 
dulled,  but  cleared,  could  he  also  keenly  as  an  Indian 
follow  the  trail.  As  diamond  cuts  diamond,  and  one 
hone  smooths  a  second,  all  the  parts  of  intellect  are 
whetstones  to  each  other  ;  and  genius,  which  is  but  the 
result  of  their  mutual  sharpening,  is  character  too. 
He  who  is  excellence,  and  does  the  heroic  thing,  will 
say  it  with  equal  however  rude  expression,  as  did 
Luther  and  John  Brown.  Said  Gangoolly,  the  Hindoo 
convert  to  Christianity,  "  When  I  made  up  my  mind,  I 
went  into  my  closet  and  cast  down  my  idols,  to  break 


44  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

in  fragments  on  the  floor,  with  fear  in  one  side  of  my 
heart,  and  triumph  in  the  other."  How  many  a  pull 
at  windlass  and  capstan  that  gesture  was  worth ! 

But,  if  we  train  not  in  a  Denomination,  do  not 
attend  the  Conference,  or  subscribe  the  Compromise, 
we  are  charged  with  individualism.  Is  it  so  bad  to 
consider  truth  or  right  no  creature  of  a  consociation  or 
suffrage  of  the  majority,  or  level  average  of  differing 
minds,  but  an  act  of  duty  from  a  perception  of  the 
mind?  Sheridan  was  individual  restoring  his  troops 
from  panic  on  the  Potomac ;  Grant  at  Vicksburg, 
Sherman  in  Georgia,  Washington  at  Valley  Forge,  and 
Butler  in  Baltimore  and  New  Orleans.  It  is  the  fault 
the  synod  found  with  Jesus,  the  council  with  Stephen, 
the  Jesuits  with  Pascal,  the  Church  with  Wycliffe  and 
Huss,  the  Pope  with  Luther  and  Dollinger,  the  Uni 
tarians  with  Parker ;  and  every  sect  with  whoever 
presumes  to  know  more  than  it  has  laid  down.  Were 
these  men  individual  in  the  low  sense?  Is  number 
virtue?  How  easy  to  outvote  God  who  is  only  One  ! 
If  individualism  be  self-seeking,  —  like  that  of  the 
profligate,  glutton,  miser,  and  sot,  —  shall  we  charge 
with  it  those  who  sacrifice  themselves  and  take  up  the 
excommunicating  cross  ?  We  hear  of  people  on  the 
fence  watching  the  signs  of  the  times,  to  know  which 
side  to  jump,  to  be,  as  the  poor  queen  tells  "  Austria  "  in 
the  play,  u  ever  strong  upon  the  stronger  side."  There 
is  a  theological  fence.  Popularity  is  never  so  sweet  as 
among  our  associates  in  an  unpopular  body.  Does  it 
become  such  as  enjoy  to  indict  those  who  renounce  it 
when  conscience  bids?  The  accuser  maybe  target  of 
his  own  shaft.  To  be  willing  to  appear  on  platforms 


INDIVIDUALISM.  45 

and  receive  ecclesiastical  invitations,  and  be  praised  by 
the  religious  press,  and  have  one's  own  books  printed 
by  an  association,  is  no  demonstration  clear  as  Euclid 
of  philanthropy.  The  hypocrite  is  no  hermit.  The 
humbug  buzzes  in  a  swarm.  Your  brother's  pride  of 
separation  may  not  match  yours  of  communion  ;  and 
in  attempting  his  portrait  you  draw  your  own.  "  You 
shall  be  a  major-general,"  one  was  told,  to  tempt  him 
to  join  the  convocation.  Did  ambition  keep  him  away  ? 
If  he  stood  aloof  for  that  luxury  of  thought,  more  sub 
tile  than  of  appetite,  to  be  a  mental  Sybarite,  he  might 
be  well  arraigned.  But  what  if  better  service  were  his 
aim?  O  brethren,  the  motives  on  either  side  may 
be  deeper  than  party.  At  the  siege  of  Paris  a  wounded 
Uhlan  and  Frenchman,  both  reviving  from  swoon 
together,  recognized  each  his  antagonist,  exchanged 
smiles  and  died,  with  that  sign  of  something  more 
than  strife.  Pure  individuality  does  not  exist,  only 
independent  thought. 

Such  men  as  Newton  and  Kepler  are  said  to  think 
God's  thoughts  after  him.  But  what  is  the  use  of 
thinking?  Do  not  all  the  churches  undertake  to  do  it 
for  us  ?  Does  not  every  creed  assume  that  all  the  think 
ing  is  done  ;  and  liberal  leaders  tell  us  all  we  have  left 
us  is  to  go  to  work,  and  spin  our  brains  no  more.  The 
more  you  think,  said  my  friend,  the  more  you  are  puz 
zled  :  act  on  your  impressions,  or  take  the  current  views. 
Robert  Burns  says  the  poet  does  not  find  the  muse  by 
thinking  long ;  and  Shakspeare  shows  us  in  Hamlet 
how  over-fine  reflection  palsies  the  will.  I  answer, 
Thought  is  deeper  than  logic,  taking  for  its  laboratory 
both  heart  and  head,  and  has  a  use  to  resolve  every  mis- 


40  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

take.  Error  is  not  pure  falsehood :  it  has  a  mixture 
of  truth.  As  a  man  choosing  the  wrong  road  is  still 
in  the  world,  and  will  come  by  some  circuit  to  his  goal ; 
as  the  ore  has  in  it  gold  and  silver  as  well  as  dross,  so 
thought  is  the  process  to  regain  the  track  we  have 
strayed  from,  and  to  smelt  the  crude  mass  of  opin 
ion.  The  English  Bishop  Colenso  in  Australia, 
eliminating  blunders  from  the  Pentateuch ;  Father 
Hyacinthe  in  France  and  his  colleague  in  Germany 
resisting  the  Pope's  infallibility ;  radical  writers  in 
America  warning  us  against  Biblical  idolatry ;  and 
scientific  explorers  all  over  the  world  scouting  the 
superstitions  of  theology,  —  are  but  so  many  meters. 
Watch  the  motions  of  your  own  mind  in  successive 
years,  your  varying  construction  of  articles,  or  empha 
sis  of  miracles  and  prophecies  and  proof-texts ;  and 
you  will  own  how  the  slow,  silent  tide  of  reason 
sweeps  away  floating,  superficial  dogmas,  and  like  the 
Atlantic  surging  into  some  muddy  creek  hides  the  old 
landmarks  of  belief.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  this  tenet 
and  that,  once  made  the  seal  of  salvation,  passes  from 
the  most  orthodox  pulpit  and  ceases.  One  spell  upon 
the  minds  of  men 

"Breaks  never  to  unite  again." 

Why  and  whence  this  inevitable  disintegration?  Be 
cause  Thought  cannot  seize  the  unthinkable  :  there  are 
things  the  understanding  cannot  entertain  any  longer, 
more  than  lungs  can  respire  in  a  vacuum.  That  a 
babe  is  born  totally  corrupt,  that  a  favored  few  are 
chosen  and  the  rest  eternally  doomed,  that  any  child 
of  God  can  be  finally  lost,  that  his  innocent  Son 


INDIVIDUALISM.  47 

could  be  punished,  —  doctrines  once  unthinkingly  pro 
claimed,  —  are  now  impossible  propositions ;  not  dis 
carded  from  among  the  articles,  but  suffered  to  sleep, 
given  the  go-by,  laid  upon  the  table,  because  there  is 
no  chamber  open  to  them  in  the  human  brain.  They 
have  gone,  with  witchcraft  and  the  evil  eye,  and  the 
power  to  curse,  and  demons,  and  priesthood,  and 
divine  right  of  kings. 

Thought  also  resolves  evil  into  good  :  this  solvent  so 
thorough,  this  reagent  so  mighty,  that  in  its  extreme 
application  all  natural  and  moral  ill  disappears.  No 
annoyance  or  injury,  no  insult  so  gross,  or  harm  so  un 
expected,  no  treachery  of  friend,  ingratitude  of  those  I 
forwarded,  dislike  of  those  I  loved,  but  under  this  com 
pound  blow-pipe  melts.  Evil  is  a  snow-flake  to  swell 
the  current  it  seemed  to  resist.  Be  it  great  calamity 
or  trifling  wrong,  its  compensation  is  its  food  for 
thought.  Riding  in  the  cars  through  the  north-east 
storm,  at  a  way-station  a  man  coolly  takes  my  umbrella, 
leaving  me  to  get  home  in  the  rain.  What  do  in  such 
a  case?  Cry,  Stop  thief!  Run  after  him,  as  one  said 
he  would,  though  he  had  lost  the  train  ?  —  sagely  add 
ing,  It  might  end  in  the  State-prison.  But  the  man  that 
has  made  so  free  with  my  property  must  need  it  more 
than  I,  and  perhaps  he  agrees  with  the  Frenchman, 
Proudhon,  that  all  property  is  robbery,  and  he  is  only 
getting  some  of  his  own  back.  I  can  afford  to  buy  a 
new  one  better  than  he  :  l^  shall  never  feel  it  in  any 
inconvenience  to  my  purse.  Going  away  unmolested 
may  stir  in  him  some  generous  shame  :  by  and  by  he 
may  even  want  to  return  the  utensil  he  has  no  right  to. 
That  nicely  carved  handle  may  tingle  in  his  fingers  as 


48  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

he  holds  it  over  his  head  in  some  pelting  shower,  as 
conscience-money  has  burned  in  the  pocket  of  many  a 
robber,  and  been  often  sent  back  to  this  or  that  private 
fund  or  public  treasury.  Therefore,  though  I  had 
grown  fond  of  the  umbrella,  that  had  shielded  me 
through  many  a  beating  storm  or  scorching  sun  all  the 
way  from  Massachusetts  to  the  pine  barrens  of  Florida, 
did  I  not  get  the  full  worth  of  it  in  these  reflections ; 
and,  though  I  never  should  have  another,  was  not  my 
revenge  or  atonement  for  its  loss  complete  ?  Let  the 
thief  reading  understand  I  am  paid  ! 

Laugh  at  the  trivial  instance  to  illustrate  a  principle 
verified  on  the  grandest  scale :  only  try  the  experi 
ment  !  Put  your  trouble  into  your  thought,  trace  its 
relations,  learn  its  object,  discern  its  effect,  and  you 
get  rid  of  it,  —  it  is  no  trouble  at  all :  it  is  transmuted 
into  gold  by  the  true  philosopher's  stone.  So  the 
Mohammedan  mystic  said,  the  religious  soul  is  not 
that  which  submits  or  bears  patiently,  but  that  which 
is  not  afflicted,  —  does  not  recognize  harm.  Per 
fect  love  casts  out  not  only  fear,  but  sorrow.  No  mat 
ter  how  great  the  grief  may  appear,  —  bereavement 
of  nearest  companion  or  dearest  child,  —  thinking  of 
its  lesson,  you  become  its  master.  Said  a  noble 
woman  :  "  My  anguish  is  mine  :  it  is  my  fortune  and 
possession  ;  I  own  it.  You  cannot  have  it :  you  may 
make  your  million  of  gold  on  the  street ;  but  this  is 
my  inalienable  treasure."  It  does  not  look  so,  more 
than  a  dark  rock  in  the  mines  of  Nevada  looks  like 
the  silver  pouring  from  it  in  the  furnace  heat.  Yet 
you  can  lose  nothing  but  thought  doubles  its  worth. 
Yonder  is  the  grave.  But  there  is  a  deeper  grave 


INDIVIDUALISM.  49 

within.  Its  walls  and  fences  are  the  boundaries  of 
your  own  heart.  Nobody  knows  the  way  to  the  gate 
of  it  but  you.  In  it  are  buried  no  useless  corses,  but 
old  friendships  and  associations  ;  sentiments  once  mu 
tual  betwixt  you  and  others,  that  no  longer  exist,  — 

"  Fond  desires  and  hopes  as  vain." 

The  obsequies  were  noiseless,  without  shroud  or  coffin 
or  funeral  procession ;  yet  no  crape  ever  worn,  no 
lament  over  the  dead  ever  lifted,  no  hollow  sound  of 
the  gravel  dropping  from  the  sexton's  spade,  could 
signify  such  suffering  as  went  with  the  interments  in 
that  invisible  sepulchre.  Yet  what  man  or  woman 
whose  thought  has  not  from  these  terrible  sacrifices 
of  the  seed-corn  of  human  joy  reaped  a  harvest? 
There  are  resurrections  from  this  other  cemetery  as 
well  as  from  the  ashes  in  God's  acre. 

"  There  is  nothing  either  good  or  bad,  but  thinking 
makes  it  so,"  says  Hamlet.  Does  not  deeper  thinking 
make  every  thing  good?  Does  one  show  ill-temper? 
Do  not  let  your  ill-temper  match  his.  The  worst  sea 
is  where  two  cross-waves  meet.  Try  to  understand 
it ;  grapple  it  with  your  thought ;  put  it  into  the 
refrigerator  of  your  philosophy,  not  the  powder- 
magazine  of  your  passion,  —  and  you  will  gather 
wisdom  from  it,  as  the  naturalist  does,  not  only  from 
graceful  forms,  —  skin  or  plumage,  of  beast  or  bird  ; 
but  from  wasps  and  serpents,  in  his  cabinet  or 
museum.  If  our  associates  will  be  hard  and  unrea 
sonable  with  us,  'will  display  bad  qualities  as  well  as 
good,  while  rejoicing  in  the  latter,  of  the  former  it  is 
quite  just  we  should,  with  imperturbable  attention, 


5O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

make  curious  specimens,  —  as  my  young  friend,  trav 
ersing  from  Mount  Desert  to  the  Blue  Hills,  does  of 
hornets  and  all  manner  of  bugs. 

Perhaps  our  companion  cannot  wholly  help  his 
disposition  more  than  the  grovelling  worm  or  stinging 
insect  can :  let  this  thought  make  us  patient.  Sin 
itself  this  potent  element  can  reduce.  Confess  our 
transgressions  and  cry  for  mercy,  yet  we  cannot  help 
asking,  Why  are  we  constituted  so  peccable  that  not  a 
soul  escapes?  Calvinism  makes  but  one  exception, 
of  the  Son  ;  Romanism  adding  the  immaculate  purity 
of  the  Mother.  "  Shapen  in  iniquity,"  as  David  says, 
born  and  begotten  so  that  we  cannot  avoid  excesses 
and  defects,  what  theory  of  such  a  fallible  constitution 
can  show  the  Creator  just?  Only  this,  —  that  sin  and 
remorse  enter  into  his  plan  of  education  to  make  us 
better  and  wiser,  as  Shakspeare  says,  "  Best  men 
are  moulded  out  of  faults."  What  but  Peter's  denial, 
Judas's  betrayal,  all  the  disciples'  cowardice,  made 
them  the  humble,  resolute  men  they  became?  The 
worst  of  us  can  turn  his  vices  to  account.  Sorely  as 
we  have  offended,  we  can  do  nothing  fatal.  Sheer 
blasphemy  and  inhumanity  in  the  old  theology  is  the 
doctrine  of  a  doom  to  perdition  and  eternal  woe  for 
personal  or  our  ancestral  delinquency.  The  bottom 
less  pit  were  a  blot  on  Deity,  though  but  one  soul 
wallowed  in  it !  Every  thread  of  disobedience,  every 
fibre  of  depravity,  God  weaves  into  his  whip  to 
scourge  us  to  virtue  ;  and  how  many  find  their  luck  in 
the  offences  by  which  they  are  lashed  out  of  their 
indifference  and  sloth  !  It  was  said  of  a  certain  hypo 
crite,  fancying  he  sported  all  the  virtues  in  his  behavior, 


INDIVIDUALISM.  5! 

It  would  do  him  good  to  be  mortified  by  getting 
drunk.  Damned  to  all  eternity  for  your  wrong-doing? 
What  a  monster  you  make  of  God  with  your  conceit ! 
He  does  not  reckon  up  the  score  of  your  departures 
and  short-comings  to  present  you  with  the  bill  at  the 
judgment-day.  He  carries  no  ugly  pack  of  your 
debts  at  his  back.  He  has  no  memory  :  all  is  present 
to  him.  He  has  no  conscience  :  that  implies  violation 
of  law,  which  he  is  incapable  of.  He  accepts  the 
purity  of  your  present  mood.  "  Let  by-gones  be  by 
gones,"  he  says.  He  will  rake  up  no  old  quarrel. 
'•  Now  is  the  accepted  time  ;  behold,  now  is  the  day 
of  salvation."  "  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet, 
they  shall  be  like  snow  ;  though  they  be  crimson,  they 
shall  be  whiter  than  wool."  We  pray  to  him :  does 
he  not  pray  to  us  to  turn  to  him?  and  may  we  not 
well  abridge  our  loud  shouts  and  long  liturgies  to 
listen  while  he  so  prays?  Evil  has  no  existence  to 
him.  He  to  whom  the  night  shineth  as  the  day,  and 
the  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike,  cannot  look 
on  sin,  and  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity. 
The  measure  of  a  man's  character  and  elevation  is  his 
ratio  of  evil  and  good.  If  evil  to  him  is  large  in 
proportion  to  good,  he  is  bad  and  low ;  if  small,  he  is 
good  and  high  ;  if  it  vanishes,  he  is  perfect  like  God. 

Thought,  once  more,  resolves  deformity  into  beauty. 
How  much  lacks  grace !  How  seldom  we  see  a 
handsome  person,  with  all  the  foils  of  ornament  and 
advantages  of  dress,  at  a  party  or  on  the  street !  To 
the  vast  majority  plain  is  a  mild  term  to  apply.  In 
the  mental-photograph  album,  to  the  question,  "  What 
is  your  finest  object  in  Nature?"  one  was  uncivil 


52  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

enough  to  write,  "  A  beautiful  woman,  though  I  have 
not  seen  one  for  years."  But  the  artist  chooses  for  his 
canvas  not  the  faces  commonly  called  beautiful,  but 
those  in  which  his  keener  eye  detects  expressions  of 
sense  and  sensibility  not  revealed  to  a  cursory  glance ; 
and  pretty  people  who  have  learned  how  pretty  they 
are,  and  take  attitudes  and  prink  and  trim  before  the 
glass,  like  the  swans  in  the  pond  I  saw  at  work  on 
their  feathers,  he  scorns  as  subjects.  An  eye  which 
the  genius  of  love  makes  penetrating  will  discover  a 
charm  in  every  face.  Not  a  breathing  man  or  woman 
but  to  insight  will  disclose  more  to  attract  than  to 
repel.  In  the  scarce-formed  frame  of  the  puniest 
child,  what  a  wonder  of  fitness  beyond  the  strongest 
engines  and  smoothest  machines !  Physicians  talk, 
not  so  absurdly  as  we  conceive,  of  beautiful  cases  of 
disease  ;  for  what  we  call  the  laius  of  disorder  mani 
fest  the  working  of  supreme  wisdom  and  equity. 

Lastly,  thought  resolves  seeming  into  being.  What 
tries  us  more  than  separation  or  pain  is  illusion.  We 
cannot  grasp  the  universe.  What  a  kaleidoscope  it  is 
of  shifting  colors,  or  camera  of  dissolving  views !  As 
I  daily  reach  my  door-step,  I  contemplate  the  beauty 
of  the  Brookline  hills  across  the  Back-Bay.  I  try  a 
hundred  times  to  seize  and  analyze  the  spell.  It  draws 
me  back  to  gaze  and  muse,  while  the  children  stop 
their  play  to  survey  and  smile  at  me  as  my  hand 
lingers  on  the  knob,  and  lifts  not  the  latch  of  the  door. 
I  toil  to  take  up  the  enchantment,  and  carry  it  away 
with  me  in  my  mind.  But  it  baffles  me  :  I  cannot 
hold  or  tell  what  it  is. 

A  woman  plays  to  me  on  her  piano.     The  strings 


INDIVIDUALISM.  53 

are  so  many  tongues  to  tell  me  more  of  her  experience 
than  she  would  venture  on  with  her  tongue  to  do.  I 
read  or  hear  between  the  lines  of  sounding  keys.  I 
spell  out  trouble  and  triumph  in  the  tunes.  The  ivory 
and  ebony  under  her  fingers  speak  of  dark  and  bright 
experiences,  of  struggles  with  narrow  circumstances, 
mixed  with  emotions  of  religious  ecstasy.  Her  state 
of  mind  is  a  problem  I  cannot  solve.  Does  her  condi 
tion  prove  human  life  the  lot  of  justice,  or  gibe  of  fate? 
A  young  girl  sees  the  prospect  open  before  her  of  all 
that  is  meant  by  wedded  joy,  and  a  long  line  of  pos 
terity  flowing  from  her  unspotted  blood  ;  when,  from 
his  covert,  the  spectre  glides  in  and  dashes  to  the 
ground  the  cup  just  touching  her  lips.  Was  this  bird 
of  paradise  made  to  be  wounded,  her  bright  wings 
ruffled,  and  every  nerve  tortured  and  torn  ?  We  hear 
of  the  mirage  in  the  desert  cheating  the  parched  trav 
eller's  eyes  with  the  empty  image  of  water  to  slake  his 
thirst.  This  mirage  of  human  life,  tantalizing  the 
soul  ready  to  drink  the  happiness  it  craves  and  is  con 
stituted  for,  is  the  mockery.  Not  gall,  like  that  offered 
to  Jesus,  is  bitter :  but  the  seeming  of  what  we  cannot 
realize ;  and  the  old  theology  is  lavish  of  gloomy  fan 
cies  to  paint  the  balking  of  desire  :  — 

"This  world  is  but  a  fleeting  show, 
For  man's  illusion  given." 

"  Each  pleasure  hath  its  poison  too, 
And  every  sweet  a  snare." 

So  it  points  to  another  world  for  reality,  and  counts 
apples  of  Sodom  all  the  apparent  hopes  and  deceitful 
satisfactions  of  this  ;  as  if  we  could  trust  the  note  pay- 


54  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

able  at  a  future  time  of  one  giving  no  evidence  he  is 
in  funds  now.  Put  aside,  postponed,  fobbed  off  in  our 
vain  expectations,  writes  one,  with  a  grim  comfort  we 
anticipate  death  as  something  that  will  not  dodge. 
But  we  want  to  touch  bottom  and  feel  something  solid 
before.  If  we  can  catch  nothing  substantial  here, 
what  ground  for  supposing  we  shall  hereafter?  The 
Oriental  writers  dilate  on  this  illusory  character  of  all 
terrestrial  experience  ;  and  what  but  this  does  Solomon 
the  great  king  intend,  when,  after  describing  the  burst 
ing  of  all  the  magnificent  preparations  he  had  blown 
up  for  his  delight,  he  puts,  like  a  placard  on  the  rock, 
this  stern  brand  on  the  universe  :  "  Vanity  of  vanities, 
all  is  vanity."  Who  that  looks  on  the  dance  of  blood 
and  death  performed  by  that  most  gay  and  wretched 
of  nations,  that  took  for  its  aim  glory,  and  its  name 
The  beautiful  Jrance,  yet  tears  down  the  monuments 
of  its  own  fame,  but  must  read  a  new  commentary  on 
the  old  text  ?  Shall  we  look  to  the  men  of  physical 
science,  the  positive  philosophers,  for  the  relief  from 
this  phantom  inspired  sages  fail  to  afford  ?  No,  they 
answer  :  the  reality  of  any  thing  we  cannot  reach.  Only 
phenomena,  the  visible,  ever-changing  accidents  of 
matter,  can  we  know  and  arrange  in  order  under  law. 
God  is  unknowable  :  we  can  find  nothing  but  it  slips 
from  comprehension,  however  plain  to  sense.  "  Is 
there  no  balm  in  Gilead?  "  no  remedy  for  this  distress 
of  doubt  ?  Yes :  not  in  observation  or  regulation  of 
facts,  but  in  thought. 

"  I  think,  therefore  I  am."  Descartes  meant  this 
not  for  argument,  but  to  say,  Being  is  equivalent  to 
thought,  thought  the  indorsement  of  being ;  a  proposi- 


INDIVIDUALISM.  55 

tion  we  cannot  forget  to  repeat.  "  I  am,"  said  the  dying 
minister,  "  therefore  God,  the  Infinite  Being,  is."  But 
He  is,  else  how  could  7  be?  I  am  because  he  thought 
of  me.  This  is  the  solution  of  the  riddle.  What  was 
the  beginning  of  all,  said  Dr.  Channing  to  me,  but 
a  thought?  The  thought  of  a  family  and  home  like 
the  world  is  love. 

Here  is  the  real,  in  your  mind.  You  worship  no 
outward  object  or  image,  but  your  thought.  He  is  the 
thought  of  your  thought.  Beyond  that  you  cannot  go. 
Do  you  shrink  from  that,  as  a  human  measure  of  Deity? 
What  other  measure  have  you  ?  The  seaman  might 
as  well  throw  away  his  log  because  it  cannot  span  the 
Atlantic,  or  his  deep  sea  line  because  it  can  touch  bot 
tom  only  here  and  there,  Cyrus  Field  refuse  to  lay 
the  electric  cable,  or  Herschel  discard  his  diagrams 
because  there  are  stars  in  the  unbounded  blue,  —  as 
we  despise  those  faculties  which  are  the  only  gauge  we 
have.  They  are  good  far  as  they  go,  —  counterpart  of 
the  creative  soul.  No  illusion  is  this  vision  in  the 
breast.  Every  pure  thought  is  a  glimpse  of  God. 
We  have  seen  him,  though  the  sight  fade  the  next 
moment  for  ever  away.  One  beholding  is  pledge  that 
to  behold  him  we  are  made.  Somehow  the  spirit  in 
us,  seeing  and  seen,  ours  and  his,  must  be  everlasting 
spectator  of  the  eternal  spectacle.  In  a  life  which  has 
had  its  share  of  suffering,  for  one  thing  I  am  grateful, 
—  the  power  and  habit  of  thought.  What  a  refuge, 
what  an  incentive,  inspiration,  and  content !  No  drug, 
or  ether,  or  drowsy  syrup  like  it  to  soothe  anguish, 
lull  misfortune  like  a  crying  child  to  sleep,  and  heal 
the  stabs  that  are  in  every  heart.  Remembrance  of 


56  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

your  Maker,  your  Origin  and  Portion,  is  oblivion  of 
every  wound  of  earthly  affection  and  all  the  scars 
of  time. 

Such  is  the  plea  for  individuality.  Private  sincerity 
is  public  welfare.  A  common  Faith  is  a  fortress  we 
agree  to  defend,  and  have  to  desert.  How  many  creeds 
once  alive  and  swarming  with  champions  resemble 
the  mouldy  castles  on  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine ! 
But  our  thought  is  an  impregnable  retreat.  No  sanc 
tuary  or  city  of  refuge,  no  den  or  cover  for  the  hunted 
beast,  no  tower  the  fugitive  draws  up  his  ladder  into, 
is  so  safe.  Mr.  Hawthorne  is  said  to  have  prevented 
interruption  by  a  chamber  without  stairs.  But  in  my 
mind  I  am  not  interruptible.  The  peace  of  God  not 
only  passes  understanding,  but  also  strife.  Under  cen 
sure  or  insult,  or  the  tiger-spring  of  hatred  and  revenge, 
the  thinker,  intangible,  has  meat  to  eat  we  know  not 
of,  a  feast  of  wine  and  honey,  while  mockers  hold  to 
his  lips  the  vinegar  and  gall.  Hence  his  look  of  rap 
ture  you  cannot  understand.  He  has  another  lesson 
than  the  lecture  you  read  him.  Nobody,  said  one,  ever 
told  me  what  I  tell.  Be  no  gossip  of  men,  but  God's 
tale-bearer  of  news  from  heaven,  like  the  prophet  who 
imparts  what  he  overhears ;  for  our  breast  is  God's 
ante-chamber,  and  our  instinct  his  door,  whose  handle 
we  can  turn  any  moment  out  of  care  ;  and  to  the  soul 
as  to  the  eagle  he  has  furnished  an  eyrie  beyond  range 
of  earthly  shot. 

But  thought  is  practical.  Under  whatever  condi 
tions,  it  at  last  must  decide.  It  breeds  charity  by 
emancipating  from  individual  bounds.  Unreflecting 
parents  expect  from  children  as  much  love  as  they 


INDIVIDUALISM.  57 

give,  forgetting  that  love  descends  ;  and  they  cannot 
return  to  us,  as  we  cannot  to  God,  an  equal  love. 
When  they  have  children,  and  we  are  dead,  out  of  the 
mists  of  the  grave,  over  the  eternal  horizon,  will  dawn 
on  them  the  first  vision  of  our  old  regard.  We  talk 
of  justice  to  persons.  We  owe  it  to  their  thought. 
Are  you  well  disposed  to  me  ?  —  be  fair  to  my  thought, 
greater  than  I,  ruling  and  using  me  for  its  servant  and 
tool,  which  I  stand  for  to  live  and  die.  It  has  right  to 
be  respected,  while  I  have  no  claim,  but  as  representa 
tive  of  my  constituent.  I  heard  of  an  actor  who  had 
an  idea  of  Hamlet  by  which  he  was  governed  on  the 
stage,  and  of  another  altering  his  conception  to  suit 
purchasers  ;  and  I  heard  of  a  preacher  who  had  learned 
to  imitate  the  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston 
pronunciation.  But  a  true  man  never  accommodates 
to  a  meridian  a  doctrine  that  owns  the  globe.  He  has 
not  one  opinion  in  his  study  or  club,  and  another  in 
his  desk.  He  has  no  policy,  but  is  impolitic  for  his 
thought.  John  Pierpont,  being  invited  to  a  certain 
pulpit,  if  he  would  consent  not  to  handle  exciting 
themes,  said,  "No  !  gentlemen,  not  if  you  would  give 
me  the  salary  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham  ! "  Unfaith 
fulness  is  selfish  contrivance.  Thought  instantly  shows 
its  folly ;  and  it  detects  the  quality  of  evil  without 
respect  to  the  size  of  the  act  by  which  a  weak  judg 
ment  is  confused,  as  if  grand  had  an  advantage  over 
petty  larceny.  A  burglar  carries  oft'  a  few  silks,  uten 
sils,  or  jewels  ;  a  pretended  buyer  secretes  a  bit  of  cloth 
under  her  cloak ;  a  pickpocket  is  found  with  your 
currency  in  his  hand  ;  a  small  counterfeiter  is  caught ; 
a  hungry  woman  steals  meat  from  a  stall,  and  is  hauled 


58  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

before  the  judge.  But  millions  of  money  are  conveyed 
away  by  a  Ring,  and  it  is  an  "  operation  "  !  Trust- 
property  sweats,  stock-jobbers  strike  for  profits  at  stock- 
,  owners'  risk,  the  bulls  and  bears  toss  and  pull.  Let 
us  ask  pardon  of  the  beasts.  No  creature  that  scares 
you  in  the  pasture,  or  hugs  the  traveller  in  California 
gorges  or  polar  ice,  is  so  cruel.  We  say  the  Bank 
suffers.  But  it  is  not  alive.  Granite  walls,  brick  vaults, 
mahogany  counters,  and  pigeon-holes  have  no  heart 
or  nerves,  back  to  clothe  or  stomach  to  feed.  They 
suffer,  whose  dividends  are  daily  bread,  education  of 
children,  cure  of  invalids.  The  widow  suffers,  whose 
husband  can  no  longer  defend  his  home  from  land- 
sharks,  or  sally  forth  to  check  financial  moves  against 
his  estate  ;  and  orphans  suffer,  who  were  advised  as  to 
the  best  investment  of  their  little  means.  Religion 
suffers  when  Bible  and  prayer-book,  sacrament  and 
sermon,  control  human  reflection  so  little  they  cannot 
hinder  in  the  cultivated  decorous  classes  transactions 
that  have  no  advantage  but  enormity  over  old  plunder 
on  the  London-surrounding  highways,  or  Roman  brig 
andage  still  lurking  in  the  plains  of  Lombardy  or 
among  the  Southern  spurs  of  the  Alps.  Custom  and 
ceremony,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  go  on  :  public  senti 
ment  is  slow  to  improve,  and  the  condemners  are  the 
committers  of  crime.  But  private  thought  proclaims 
the  need  of  a  sense  of  God  not  only  in  the  temple  and 
at  the  Lord's  table,  through  stately  ordinance,  sweet  in 
cense,  and  sonorous  intonation,  —  but  in  the  merchant's 
counting-room  and  lawyer's  office,  on  the  judge's 
bench  and  at  the  brokers'  board.  When  loss  and 
death  ensue  from  mismanagement,  and  directors  are 


INDIVIDUALISM.  59 

called  to  account,  they  feel  offended  and  hurt.  But 
what  is  the  use  of  them  if  they  do  not  direct,  more 
than  does  the  ship's  figure-head  or  the  painted  form 
with  the  printed  Dirigo  on  a  shield  ?  Stop  your  dis 
pute  how  the  wood  and  velvet  shrine  shall  be  illumi 
nated.  Take  up  your  candles,  carry  them  forth  from 
every  altar,  and  set  them  in  the  courts  of  Mammon, 
till  all  its  dusky  corners  are  lighted,  and  every  un 
righteous  plot  exposed.  A  lamp  burning  in  a  store  is 
greater  safeguard  than  a  lock.  "  I  want  more  light 
about  the  future,"  said  my  friend.  We  want  it  in  all 
the  purlieus  of  trade.  Certain  Italian  thieves  are  said 
to  have  their  fingers  lengthened  by  the  daily  habit  of 
searching  the  persons  of  their  victims.  There  are  long 
fingers  nearer  home  !  Let  us  trust  business  is  not  so 
rotten,  or  greed  so  insane,  as  to  make  the  revelation  of 
iniquity  a  nine  days'  wonder,  but  that  these  greater 
robbers  than  the  Alexander,  whom  the  small  thief  he 
would  punish  claimed  fellowship  with,  may  receive 
their  due. 

Deeper  private  thinking  alone  can  heal  social  dis 
sembling.  Reporting  some  interview,  you  say,  I  was 
on  my  good  behavior  and  did  it  nicely.  Not  on  your 
good  behavior  when  the  company  went?  You  could 
curry  favor,  and  let  criticism  crouch  like  a  hushed 
dog,  but  change  your  face  of  compliment  as  your 
visitor  turned  the  corner.  The  man  whose  tribunal  is 
his  thought  is  on  good  behavior  when  he  is  alone, 
and  as  careful  of  his  designs  as  his  words.  His  court 
house  is  not  the  granite  building.  He  stands  at  a  bar 
whose  rail  is  unseen.  He  knows  nothing  of  great 
occasions  and  small.  He  cares  no  more  to  act  than 


60  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

to  endure,  to  speak  than  to  be  dumb.  Duty  has  no 
inequality.  The  spirit-level  varies  not  for  a  special 
effort,  more  than  mountains  ruffle  the  huge  sphere 
they  are  strewn  on  like  sand.  Pulpits  and  platforms 
sink  ;  chambers  of  pain  and  poverty  rise.  No  rush 
of  events  and  affairs  can  unpoise  the  soul  whose  collect 
is  conscious  truth.  In  the  whirlpool  is  a  centre  the 
mad  waters  cannot  shake. 

In  an  age  of  corporate  agency,  whose  consolidated 
wealth  challenges  comparison  with  the  exchequer  of 
the  State,  and  makes  legislatures  its  tools,  of  nothing 
is  the  need  so  sore  as  independent  testimony  of  the 
moral  sense.  It  is  no  preposterous  fancy,  that  for 
lack  of  vision  the  people  perish.  Let  Argus  with  all 
his  eyes  come  back,  and  permit  no  plan  or  proceeding 
to  escape  scrutiny.  Away  with  darkness  !  If  secret 
societies  continue  for  harmless  ceremony,  to  gratify  a 
love  of  mystery,  or  for  mutual  supply  to  the  impover 
ished  from  brotherly  hands,  let  us  have  no  Free 
masons  or  Odd  Fellows  of  another  sort  to  appropriate 
of  the  common  riches  more  than  their  share.  Let  the 
manifold  Rings  that  form  and  contract  like  anacondas 
in  their  destructive  strength,  to  centralize  power  and 
wealth  in  a  few,  expand  by  ventilation  till  they  burst ! 
One  prerogative  dignifies  the  human  race,  the  freedom 
of  thought,  at  whose  assizes  every  practice  must  stand. 
In  much  we  are  excelled  by  the  animals.  The  crane 
not  only  walks  like  me,  but  swims  and  flies  as  I 
cannot.  But  I  can  dive  deeper,  wade  where  it  cannot 
follow,  and  soar  higher.  Without  moving  a  muscle, 
the  mind  traverses  Nature  and  has  ascension  without 
death. 


III. 

TRANSCENDENTALISM. 

THE  line  of  a  planet  is  a  compromise  between  two 
forces,  a  resultant  which  students  work  out  on 
the  slate  ;  and  social  progress  has  for  its  factors  the  old 
institution  and  the  new  idea,  from  whose  struggle  the 
race  shoots  ahead,  —  one  represented  by  the  prophet, 
the  other  administered  by  the  priest.  Mankind  de 
pends  on  what  it  has  hived  and  what  it  earns.  Moral 
capital  is  no  metaphor.  Knowledge  and  virtue  accu 
mulate  as  well  as  silver  and  gold,  and  are  the  highest 
kind  of  real  and  personal  estate,  without  which  no 
business  in  politics  or  philanthropy  could  be  done. 
How  sad,  said  a  foreigner,  to  think  all  the  coined 
money  in  the  United  States  could  not  pay  the  national 
debt !  Yes,  answered  a  Yankee  ;  and  to  think,  if  the 
harvest  failed  all  over  the  world  for  a  year,  all  nations 
would  starve  !  Labor  is  the  only  source  of  wealth, 
cries  the  new  party.  But  manual  is  not  the  only, 
hardest,  or  best  labor.  If  we  grew  and  applied  no 
fresh  ideas,  all  the  words  of  prophets,  biographies  of 
saints,  and  traditions  of  Palestine  would  not  stay  our 
hunger,  more  than  the  granaries  of  Egypt  or  last  year's 
load  in  store  and  barn.  With  all  respect  to  those  who 


6 2  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

run  the  machine,  a  dearer  honor  belongs  to  such  as 
supply  the  motive-power.  Free  and  wild  speculation, 
as  well  as  custom  and  ordinance,  has  its  place.  Right 
as  Leroux  may  be  in  the  doctrine  of  human  solidarity, 
or  the  advance  of  the  species  in  column,  the  particles 
change  in  this  huge  body,  as  the  ranks  of  an  army  in 
the  field  are  depleted  and  filled  up  ;  and  civil  or  eccle 
siastical  continuity  is  no  mechanical  necessity,  but  that 
divine  order  we  must  put  our  own  heart  and  will  into, 
and  which  the  boldest  thinker  or  righteous  iconoclast 
is  no  less  part  of  than  any  bishop  or  sheriff,  — nay,  is 
leader  of  the  van.  Nature  proceeds  not  by  leaps,  was 
the  old  Latin  phrase.  But  closer  scrutiny  shows  she 
does.  There  is  not  only  expansion,  but  eruption,  — 
volcano  and  earthquake  ;  and,  in  minuter  spaces,  signs 
of  sudden  action,  as  though  the  will  of  God  were 
no  figure  of  speech.  Darwin  and  Spencer  have  to 
modify  the  doctrines  of  evolution  and  development 
to  accommodate  facts  of  rapid  change  into  new  orders 
observed  by  eyes  sharp  as  their  own.  There  is,  said 
my  friend,  a  track  we  must  keep  to  in  grooves  of  fate. 
But  there  is  many  a  place  where  Nature  switches  off, 
and  takes  a  new  departure.  The  free-thinker  long 
ago  was  said  to  have  come  to  where  was  no  more 
road.  But  his  road  has  no  end  ;  and  he  has  advanced 
ever  since,  and  still  keeps  on.  The  traveller  in  Switz 
erland,  looking  from  his  carriage,  beholds  his  path 
blocked  at  a  hillside  or  plunging  into  a  lake,  and  for 
the  moment  imagines  in  that  direction  is  no  further 
step.  But,  arriving  at  the  point,  he  finds  the  beaten 
way  winding  round  the  mountain's  spur  into  the  rarest 
beauty  of  its  course  ;  and  the  mind  that  goes  on  with- 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  63 

out  terror  comes  to  the  reward  of  truth.     Where  will 
they  stop?  is  the  inquiry  respecting  the  critics  of  estab 
lished    methods ;    and  the  answer  is,   Nowhere.     M. 
Coquerel    tells    us    he    was     scolded    by    the     French 
authorities  for  treating  social  questions  in  his  paper  ; 
and,  asking  what  was  meant  by  social  questions,  was 
told,  Things  that  are!     Yet   not    a    thing   but   must 
be  unsettled  in  favor  of  something  better,  though  the 
reason  of  the  nickname    Transcendentalist  was,  that 
whoever  did   this  transcended   all  practical   stability. 
Doubtless  he  who  inhabits  the  region  of  pure  thought 
becomes  too  impatient  of  existing  modes.     The  air  of 
the  church  is  close  and  smoky,  said  one  returning  from 
a  long  sojourn  in  the  country.     Yes,  I  answered  :   to 
a  person   used   to  the  whole  atmosphere  God  makes 
so  big  that  everybody  may  have  enough,  every  room, 
however  ventilated,  will  seem  confined.     But  as  we 
must  be  content  to  breathe  in  houses  and  temples,  and 
shops  and  court-rooms,  so  we  must  live  and  morally 
respire  in  such  establishment  of  Church  and  State  as 
the  common  sense  and  conscience  have  been  able  to 
secure,  enlarging  and  improving  it  as  we  can.     The 
reformer  is  arraigned  as  destructive  and  traitor,  accused 
of  breaking  the  church-windows  from  the  inside,  and 
hewing  down  the   pillars  of  the  pulpit  in  which  he 
stands.       But  if  the  windows  are   shut  too    tight   to 
open,  or  stained  with  superstitious   emblems,   and  if 
the   sinking  pulpit  let  him   down    to    the    level   floor 
where  his  congregation  sits,  there  may  be  a  blessing 
from  his  axe  and  his  stones.     There  is  no  church   in 
Christendom  where  this  question,  whether  some  of  the 
keepers  are  not  betrayers  of  the  citadel,  does  not  arise. 


64  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

What  free  man  in  any  communion  is  not  charged  with 
having  broken  his  pledge,  often  unawares,  as  the  ex 
cellent  Deacon  Grant  with  some  horror  declared  he 
had  done,  with  the  first  mouthful  of  hrandied  mince- 
pie  which  his  hostess  had  prepared.  To  think  at  all 
is  violation  of  promise,  in  principle  if  not  in  fact,  by 
marring  some  actual  article  of  faith.  How  we  queried 
whether  those  noble  English  Essayists  ought  to  stay 
on  the  theological  premises  they  took  such  liberty  to 
alter  and  extend  !  The  papacy  in  Rome  and  every 
bishopric  in  America  are  shaken  with  the  same  issue 
of  moral  casuistry.  Universalism  and  Unitarianism 
have  expelled  from  their  interior  offenders  they  were 
griped  by,  with  intolerable  pain  ;  and  what  it  is  to  be 
a  true  Radical  I  have  heard  the  banished  discuss  with 
each  other,  as  did  the  Southern  seceders  from  the 
Union,  albeit  they  have  no  home  from  which  to  drive 
the  disloyal  out.  The  interpreter  and  originator  must 
quarrel,  and  organization  be  at  odds  with  the  unor 
ganized  or  unorganizable  :  meantime,  for  benefit  as 
for  peace,  it  is  well  to  have  some  estimate  of  the  office 
of  the  seer,  and  the  value  of  his  addition  to  the  common 
stock. 

The  crisis  comes  una\vares.  A  new  vision  reforms 
all  our  knowledge,  as  the  astronomer  catches  a  planet 
in  the  threads  on  his  glass  and  the  solar  system  is 
readjusted.  The  world  of  shifting  opinion  hangs  on 
a  hair.  How  little  it  was  thought,  forty  years  ago, 
that  a  Boston  clergyman's  difficulty  with  his  people 
about  the  way  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  would 
be  the  string  let  into  the  loose  public  sentiment  to 
cause  a  new  crystallization.  I  remember  the  horror 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  65 

with  which  a  fellow-student  announced  to  me  the 
unbearable  criticism  of  the  ancient  rite,  and  my  wonder 
at  anybody's  being  so  much  moved.  But  forms  hold 
fast  after  the  ideas  have  changed  which  were  their 
source  and  support,  as  shells  and  husks  are  no  less 
tough  and  hard  when  the  kernel  and  substance  are 
gone.  So  how  to  eat  the  bread  and  drink  the  wine, 
or  commune  without  eating  or  drinking,  was  another 
question  added  to  the  many  which  have  made  the 
ordinance  a  very  volcano  of  controversy,  ever  ready 
for  fresh  overflow  ;  though  the  Oriental  custom  seemed 
not  much  suited  to  the  Western  mind.  The  young 
minister  was  told  privately  to  alter  the  style  of  the 
symbol  as  he  judged  right,  but  he  doubted  his  fitness 
for  such  reconstruction ;  and  the  discussion  sufficed 
to  separate  sworn  friends  and  unseat  a  genius  soaring 
like  Phaeton,  whose  freedom  with  an  outward  observ 
ance  was  his  mishandling  the  reins  of  the  Sun.  It  had 
come  to  pass  that,  when  men  spoke  of  the  elements, 
not  truth  or  feeling,  but  the  oven  and  vintage,  were 
meant.  In  taking  up,  later,  the  line  of  this  ceremony 
between -church  and  congregation,  where  by  no  power 
it  could  be  restored,  we  felt  the  force  of  this  prejudice 
threatening  an  equally  violent  result. 

The  personal  distress  of  all  dislocation  doubtless 
attended  that  severing  of  the  clerical  tie.  But  the 
portent  was  of  new  growth.  There  are  moral  pains 
of  birth  and  struggle  for  life.  The  man  was  not 
important  to  the  Church  till  he  left  it  to  become  such 
a  figure  as  to  make  his  judges  the  world's  benefactors. 
Now  he  stood  for  a  thought.  His  divorce  from 
preaching  allowed  marriage  with  an  idea,  till  then 

5 


66  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

>  coyly  courted,  for  an  offspring  of  the  best  poetry  and 
philosophy  of  the  age.  A  shrewd  suspicion  of  Ger- 

/  man  inoculation  flung  at  the  movement  the  word 
Transcendental,  for  a  disgrace,  which,  as  of  all 
names  of  good  and  odious  things,  turned  to  fame. 

In  truth,  the  out-break  was  nothing  new  under  the 
sun.  The  fount  of  the  Nile  is  discovered,  but  not  of 
this  spiritual  Arethusa.  Whoever  was  of  that  club 
meeting  in  Concord  and  Boston  must  recall  the 
fellowship  so  dear,  the  delight  as  of  another  revela 
tion,  the  Quaker  peace,  with  but  a  dream  of  seeds  of 
revolution  dropping  through  the  quiet  air.  Edward 
Everett  likened  the  doctrine  to  Virgil's  thunderbolt, 
three  parts  empty  air.  Was  it  wind  the  new  husband 
men  sowed?  The  whirlwind  that  was  reaped  was 
a  boon.  Yet  most  men  did  not  dread,  but  laughed 
at  the  phenomenon  as  but  moonshine  or  mirage. 
As  well  tell  Columbus  it  was  no  new  world  he  had 
reached  when  heaved  in  view  the  outlying  island,  one 
of  a  flock  which  now  beat  at  our  windows  in  the  polit 
ical  storm.  Previous  explorers  had  sailed  into  the 
same  latitudes  of  thought.  The  startling  doctrine  of 
the  soul's  sufficiency  was  no  upstart  or  bastard,  but 
a  lawful  line  of  ancient  origin,  in  divers  branches, 
Hebrew  and  Greek,  —  going  back  to  Plato  and  Abra 
ham,  Lot  and  Seth,  groves  of  Academus  and  Garden 
of  Eden,  before  Bibles  were.  It  was  revived  in  the 
best  words  of  Jesus  and  John  and  Paul.  English 
translators  dipped  their  buckets  for  it  into  the  wisdom 
of  the  East.  The  Hindoo  found  himself  a  Yankee 
with  no  question  of  caste.  The  Christian  Scriptures 
were  paralleled  from  books  of  strange  names  in  other 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  67 

tongues.  The  spring  of  wonder  burst  up  in  Teutonic 
soil,  the  same  living  water  as  in  Indian  bottles  or 
Jewish  jars.  It  filtered  into  the  clear  British  sense. 
With  astonishing  virility  the  spiritual  theory  was 
propagated  by  Carlyle ;  and  as  visionary  a  mystic 
as  ever  wandered  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  ap 
peared  in  William  Blake.  Orthodoxy  became  ideal 
with  Coleridge's  "  Aids  to  Reflection  ;  "  Wordsworth 
put  the  same  meaning  into  his  odes,  and  Cousin 
arranged  it  in  philosophic  terms.  Yet  when  it  was 
proclaimed  in  its  legitimate  conclusions  in  the  sanc 
tuary  of  Liberal  Christianity,  it  was  greeted  with  a 
shriek,  as  though  Cudworth  or  Berkeley  or  Spinoza 
had  never  lived.  Religion,  under  a  show  of  progress, 
had  declined.  In  too  much  logic,  expression  became 
the  ebb  of  faith,  till  it  reached  low-water  mark. 
Sectarian  controversy  brought  down  Trinitarian  and 
Unitarian  alike  to  the  flats  of  a  dry  and  barren  doc- 
trinality  ;  and  the  high  divine  converse  with  which 
Puritan  and  Pilgrim  began  the  Commonwealth  gave 
place  to  a  Babel  of  words.  What  splitting  of  particles, 
as  described  by  Gibbon  in  the  former  age  ;  what  ran 
sacking  of  prophecies,  what  dispute  of  the  authority 
of  this  and  that  passage,  what  weighing  of  jots  and 
tittles  in  diamond  scales  ;  instead  of  the  grand  war 
of  ideas,  what  petty  battles  of  texts !  Andover  and 
Cambridge  responded  to  each  other  with  paper  pop 
guns,  not  with  the  noise  of  His  water-spouts.  Into 
this  squabble  the  angel  blew  his  trumpet  to  summon 
to  the  privilege  of  direct  communication  with  the 
Infinite ;  none  so  much  surprised  as  the  trumpeter 
at  the  ague-fit  of  anger  and  grief  that  ensued.  He 


68  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

felt  in  order,  without  break  or  fault  in  the  natural 
evolution.  He  had  occasion  to  avenge  his  re 
jected  sentiment  in  an  address  to  the  Graduating 
Class  in  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School,  which,  like 
the  last  whirl  of  sticks  of  the  savage's  tinder-box, 
first  struck  fire.  But  what  a  dish  to  set  before  the 
King,  that  performance  !  After  the  short  breathings 
of  the  gentle  prayer,  which  had  in  it  no  pronouns, 
and  one  said  was  no  prayer  at  all,  came  the  textiess 
discourse,  preserved  for  ever  in  its  sweet  pungency, 
while  all  the  replies  to  it  are  forgot.  It  was  no  hornet 
or  drone  lighting  on  us,  but  the  sting  of  a  honey-bee 
guarding  for  us  our  own  luxury.  It  was  the  return 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  with  voice,  not  recognized  among 
manifold  opposing  echoes  so  long  listened  to  in  its 
stead.  But  no  rude,  unwarrantable  assault  could 
have  begot  such  fear  as  that  golden-mouthed  speech. 
It  meant  business,  and  laid  out  a  stint  of  work.  The 
dismissed  preacher  had  not  been  hushed.  If  he  could 
not  have  the  pulpit's  velvet  cushion,  he  would  take 
the  Lyceum's  pine  desk  ;  and  what  a  power  he  made 
the  Lecture,  is  it  not  to  be  written  in  our  chronicles? 
In  his  farewell  sermon,  in  Hanover  Street,  he  had 
said  there  were  functions  of  the  ministerial  office  he 
should  rejoice  to  discharge  wherever  he  might  exist. 
For  these  his  change  of  situation  was  a  help.  As 
the  painter  stands  off  from  the  canvas  to  mark  the 
accuracy  of  his  drawing,  this  man's  absence  from 
his  chosen  calling  gave  distance  for  a  true  perspec 
tive,  while  he  was  doubly  impressionable  to  com 
pare  another  picture  with  th'e  ecclesiastical.  He  had 
the  advantage  of  a  smooth  temper.  Perfect  health 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  69 

stood  bondsman  for  his  equanimity,  and  the  cool  flesh 
of  a  child  was  type  of  his  unfevered  mind.  He  never 
rested  and  was  never  restless  ;  his  figure,  the  rifle 
man's  statue,  —  not  stirring  till  the  fatal  shot.  He 
means  something  in  every  sketch,  it  was  said  of  Hunt ; 
and  God  filled  this  word-painter  with  intention,  his 
own  or  the  Spirit's  you  could  not  tell.  They  were  the 
same.  But,  called  to  defend  what  he  had  said,  he 
could  give  no  account  but  his  order  to  think.  The 
responsibility  was  none  of  his.  So  thought  Francis 
Bacon  was  authority  enough  for  that  philosopher's 
page ;  and  this  man  was  under  command.  His 
thought  was  not  in  his  hands  :  he  was  in  the  hands 
of  his  thought.  Like  all  who  wear  not  their  heart 
in  their  sleeve,  put  on  no  robe  of  enthusiasm,  and 
warm  their  audience  with  no  stove  of  animal  heat, 
he  was  charged  with  being  cold.  The  critics  did 
not  look  close  enough.  They  could  not  feel  the 
spiritual  flame  nor  appreciate  that  baptism  of  fire  the 
Baptist  foretold  :  which  to  the  senses  is  a  cool  com 
bustion.  A  warm  temperament  would  have  disqual 
ified  him  for  his  task.  Temperance  was  his  star. 
After  so  much  vapor  we  wanted  dry  light.  Fondness 
for  persons  runs  into  idolatry  of  institutions,  and 
checks  audacious  words.  Only  his  dispassionate, 
if  not  unimpassioned  disposition  could  deal  purely 
with  his  theme.  It  did  not  occur  to  him  he  was 
going  to  hurt  anybody's  feelings  :  no  vision  or  proph 
ecy  had  ever  hurt  his.  A  full-grown  superstition 
standing  in  the  way,  how  but  by  undervaluation  of 
the  past,  —  as  memory,  habit,  or  tradition,  —  could  he 
throw  his  whole  weight  into  his  axe  at  the  root  of 


70  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  tree?  When  his  friend  said,  "  Here  are  my  facts, 
I  cannot  give  up  them,"  "  Here  are  my  ideas,"  was  his 
reply.  The  facts  were  bad.  He  wanted  them  to  be 
better  :  as  Dr.  Hedge,  being  told  the  facts  were  against 
him  and  were  stubborn  things,  answered,  So  much 
the  worse  for  the  facts.  What  shall  be  said  to  reports 
of  the  telescope  pointed  to  sky  or  sea?  We  can  but 
repeat  them,  as  the  captain  below  repeats  the  figures 
the  mate  on  deck  calls  out  to  him  from  his  quadrant 
lifted  to  the  sun.  Here  was  a  finer  glass  turning  to 
the  heaven  of  truth  over  the  sea  of  time  ;  and  the 
observer's  sentence  was  translation  of  his  sight.  In 
terrogated,  he  could  but  recite  what  he  had  already 
said.  When  John  Marshall's  party-friends  begged 
to  know  why  he  persisted  in  refusing  to  answer 
Albert  Gallatin's  speech,  he  at  last  said,  Because 
it  is  unanswerable.  So  those  who  complained  of 
and  rejected  could  get  no  rejoinder  to  this  lesson. 
He  compelled  his  critics  to  become  his  quoters.  Out 
of  what  root  did  blossoms  of  such  genuine  beauty 
and  fragrance  foil  the  cut-paper  flowers  of  the  creeds  ? 
The  Divine  Immediacy  with  man  !  One  day,  before 
a  keen  eye,  water  rising  to  its  own  level  in  a  tube 
made  a  ruin  of  the  Roman  aqueducts.  So  it  was 
shown  the  river  of  God  is  not  confined  to  Jewish 
conduits.  We  must  have  nearer  access  .to  it  than 
that  long  old  file  of  Hebrew  Kings,  Judges,  and 
Prophets,  magnificent  as  are  their  monumental  words 
and  refreshing  as  is  the  flood  they  convey. 

This  seer's  originality  armed  itself  with  a  new  style. 
The  surprising  fitness  of  trite  terms  in  his  use  was  a 
resurrection  of  the  dictionary.  The  silence  of  a  sage 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  7 1 

whets  our  eagerness  to  hear  ;  and  this  man's  advantage 
was  his  superiority  to  ambition,  his  willingness  to  be 
still,  his  indifference  whether  he   used  his  eye  or  ear, 
his  avoidance  of  eloquence,  —  which  Dr.  Johnson  calls 
exaggeration,  —  and  preference  of  low  to  high-sounding 
words,   like  the   modest   artist  who   gives   the  whole 
character  of  an  object  in  neutral  tints  or  a  charcoal 
sketch.     Why  be  forward  or  loquacious?     Truth  will 
find  its  own  way  and  organ,  and  make  dumb  Moses 
more  persuasive  than  rhetorical  and  mellifluous  Aaron. 
It  was  not  the  only  possible    mood,  perhaps  not  the 
highest  manner ;  but  it  was  his,  and  apt  to  the  time. 
There  came  no  prophet's  burden  or  scream,  but  the 
voice  of  one  careless  of  the  fate  of  his  person  or  prop 
osition  :  trusting  truth  to  the  air  and  allowing  it  time 
to  sink  into  the  ear,  not  anxious  to  multiply  himself, 
but  to  condense  his  message.     He  knew  no  method 
could  avail  but  that  of  his  own  constitution.     Incapable 
of  feeling  personal  outrage  or  oppression,  in  good  con 
dition,  content  with  the  universe,  as  well  fed  as  any  of 
the  children  at  the  table,  delicate  in  his  taste,  every 
pore  informing  him  who  was  coming,  and   closing  at 
rude  approach,  and  every  nerve  an  alarm-bell  at  any 
catechism,  —  neither  seeking  an  audience  nor  itching 
to  hear  himself  talk,  he  was  quite  unfit  for  an  agitator 
or  ecclesiastical    demagogue.      Yet  his    individuality 
kept  him  out  of  any  class.     He  stood  for  humanity, 
and  was  one  of  the  people.     So  his  banishment  from 
the  Church  on  a  technical  ground  and  punctilio  of  form 
was  as  blessed  ostracism   as  Dante's  exile  from  Flor 
ence.     Those  going  without  the  camp  bearing  some 
reproach   are   always  redeemers.     Inside  the  heavens 


^2  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

are  but  half  seen.  That  imagination  which  is  eye 
and  atmosphere  is  hindered  by  walls.  A  fence  fences 
out  more  than  it  fences  in.  I  must  be  free  as  an  Indian, 
he  said  ;  for  I  want  more  liberty  than  that  with  which 
Christ  has  made  me  free. 

These  were  intrusive  allusions  but  that  my  topic  must 
be  treated  with  circumstantial  illustration.  A  hero 
he  will  not  be  of  his  own  tale.  This  story  should  be 
told,  before  all  cognizant  of  the  particulars  pass-  from 
the  stage,  to  vindicate  the  transcendental  position  as  no 
affront  to  history,  but  protest  against  a  mortgage  of 
the  future.  It  has  been  described  as  a  transitory  affair, 
like  a  meteor  that  shoots  and  explodes,  or  a  plant  with 
out  product  or  healthy  root.  But,  standing,  guard  for 
progress  does  not  disown  the  past.  Sceptic  no  more 
than  Orthodox  cuts  off  from  his  antecedents.  Our 
ancestors  had  not  only  their  solutions,  but  their  ques 
tions  too.  They  had  sailed  for  new  discovery,  and 
swung  uneasy  at  their  moorings,  with  doubts  suppressed 
by  their  situation  or  unripe  for  expression,  —  an  in 
heritance  for  their  sons,  and  coming  to  a  head  in  brains 
born  of  their  own.  All  our  present  growth  was  in 
their  soil.  The  oak  forest,  that  springs  up  after  the 
pine  is  burnt  or  cleared  away,  pre-existed  as  shrubs  or 
germs,  for  a  while  overgrown  and  kept  down.  Always 
in  generous  doubts  nobler  convictions  fasten  and  thrive. 
The  finest  trees  on  the  grounds  where  I  ramble  have 
forced  their  way  through  the  clefts  of  the  rocks. 
Paul  was  all  the  time  in  Saul.  With  his  pains  to  prove 
his  untainted  lineage,  did  it  ever  occur  to  him  that  not 
the  contradiction  but  cause  of  his  heresy  lay  in  the 
religious  purity  of  his  blood?  Gamaliel,  be  sure,  had 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  73 

his  queries,  however  he  managed  for  himself  and  his 
pupils,  like  many  a  preacher  and  Sunday-school 
teacher,  to  subdue  them  for  the  time.  Dr.  Beecher, 
accusing  some  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Conven 
tion  of  Congregational  Ministers  of  departing  from 
the  faith  of  the  Fathers,  was  asked  by  Dr.  Lowell  if 
there  were  any  members  who  adhered  to  the  faith, 
and  could  only  cough  out,  Yes,  for  substance!  He 
also  in  an  ordination-sermon  hurled  Paul's  anathema  at 
the  Unitarians  as  preachers  of  another  gospel,  and 
bade  them  depart  and  not  shoot  their  poisoned  ar 
rows  behind.  The  Unitarians  had  their  pay  when 
Dr.  Beecher  was  arraigned  as  a  heretic  before  the 
Presbyterian  synod.  But  were  the  Unitarians  rebel 
lious  or  degenerate  children  of  their  theological  sires? 
No :  they  maintained  the  Pilgrim  line,  were  Puritans 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  striking  for  freedom  to 
worship  God. 

"  Once  more  unto  the  breach,  dear  friends,  once  more !  " 

Transcendentalism  did  not  foul  its  nest,  or,  as  is 
continually  charged,  despise  its  mother ;  but  unfolded 
the  faith  implied  in  every  act  of  the  settlers  of  the  land. 
It  cast  off  naught  precious  in  the  old  belief;  but 
was  a  new  vessel,  a  better  Mayflower  for  the  Truth's 
escape  from  her  foes.  It  set  us  all  afloat;  but  that 
may  be  better  than  to  be  all  ashore.  A  church  once 
floated  off  to  Nova  Scotia  from  the  British  in  Boston, 
and  still  lives.  The  essence  of  faith  is  advance.  Like 
a  political  constitution,  it  provides  for  its  own  amend 
ment. 

In  the  moving  on  of  mankind,  the  way-marks  differ 


74  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

at  each  turn  of  the  road.  It  is  the  general  direction  we 
must  look  at,  like  a  ship  that  tacks,  or  carriage  wind 
ing  round  the  hill.  Would  we  repeat  our  Fathers'  case, 
the  items  of  their  life?  That  were  false  imitation, 
mimicry,  a  poor  copy  of  those  great  masters.  The 
living  likeness  is  to  apply  their  principles  to  our  con 
dition.  One  star  differs  from  another,  but  they  all  go 
one  way.  One  boulder  has  not  its  neighbor's  weight 
or  size,  but  every  scratch  on  the  primitive  rock  follows 
the  same  line  of  the  compass.  The  icebergs  show 
every  sort  of  shape  and  similitude,  yet  all  drift  to  the 
South.  Our  reformers  square  not  their  theories  to 
those  of  any  former  age,  yet  steadily  with  every  step 
near  the  goal  of  the  same  millennium.  Like  the 
angel  that  came  down  to  trouble  the  pool  at  certain 
seasons,  this  visitation  of  the  Spirit  is  periodical.  One 
said  its  return  was  like  that  of  the  seventeen-years 
locust.  But  it  always  betokens  conflict.  Byron 
describes  the  cannon-roar  that  broke  in  on  the  ball 
room  at  Belgium's  capital  as  mistaken  for  thunder  or 
rattling  of  a  car  along  the  stony  street ;  but  volley 
after  volley  came  to  prove  its  nature :  and  every  stroke 
of  religious  genius  claims  kith  and  kin  with  prior 
ones,  though  fifty  generations  lie  between.  At  the 
gates  of  hell,  Sin  convicts  Satan  as  her  offspring ;  and 
all  beneficence  is  born  of  goodness.  The  intellectual 
regenerator  is  never  heady,  but  calm  as  he  is  warm. 
He  is  careful  as  a  surveyor  of  his  spirit-level.  Of 
the  re-creator  none  could  tell  if  his  temper  were  flame 
or  phlegm.  He  struck  no  attitude,  stood  on  no  stage, 
had  looked  in  no  glass,  was  no  oratoric  gymnast,  never 
strained  nor  sweat,  rolled  neckerchief  in  his  hand,  or 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  75 

wiped  emotion  from  his  brow,  but  had  laid  the  robes 
aside  and  sang  without  singing-garlands.  He  was  poet, 
but  not  laureate.  His  leaves  were  loose  :  he  found  them 
with  difficulty  ;  and  his  only  noticeable  gesture  was  an 
emphatic  look,  which  a  famous  lawyer,  who  thought  it 
worth  the  entrance-fee,  said  was  directed  at  nothing. 
But  it  indicated  that  the  speaker's  subject  had  in  his 
ecstasy  become  an  object  of  sight.  He  was  of  the 
family  of  prophets  who  first  are,  then  see,  and  then 
say,  —  that  being  the  order.  In  the  old  controversy, 
who  were  the  circumcision  and  Abraham's  children, 
Jesus  decides  for  the  patriarch's  spirit  against  his 
blood  ;  and  what  bomb-proof  occupant  of  an  accredited 
church  could  vie  with  this  teacher  of  Christianity  with 
out  its  name?  It  signified  execution  when  into  the 
Spirit's  hands  was  put  this  imaginative  tool,  polished 
with  courtesy  and  taking  from  good  humor  the  finest 
edge.  The  least  acidity  eats  into  the  steel ;  but  the 
keenness  of  rebuke  is  its  tenderness. 

Yet  this  genius  was  too  high  and  subtile  for  popular 
effect.  A  university  of  education,  doing  more  for 
scholars  than  any  college,  it  needed  the  supplement 
of  talent  to  spread  its  inspiration  into  the  common 
school ;  and  that  came  in  the  stalwart  figure  —  like 
a  second  Luther  —  of  Theodore  Parker.  He  made 
no  feast  for  a  few  of  nightingales'  tongues,  but  a  board 
with  bread  for  millions.  -He  was  not  a  seer,  but  an 
officer,  —  the  deputy-sheriff  of  ideas.  Never  lived 
man  more  strong  and  faithful  to  execute  the  writ. 
Piety  and  philanthropy  were  as  the  coming  and  going 
of  his  breath.  Like  an  old  Hebrew,  he  turned  every 
piece  of  paper  to  see  if  the  name  of  God  were  on  it ; 


76  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

and  all  his  study  went  into  aQt.  He  suffered  no 
volume  of  truth  to  rest  with  uncut  leaves  on  the  shelf, 
no  scrap  of  information  to  be  thrown  into  the  waste- 
basket.  There  were  those  well  enough  pleased  to 
have  the  new  speculations  remain  mental  exercises, 
and  let  institutions  alone.  Parker  tore  down  the  par 
tition  of  esoteric  and  exoteric  as  the  veil  of  the  temple 
was  rent  in  twain.  He  could  not  conceive  of  a  scholar 
keeping  a  bit  of  his  learning  from  the  people  to  him 
self.  He  bitterly  denounced  the  policy  of  doling  out 
wisdom  as  the  folk  were  thought  able  to  bear  it.  All 
the  poetry  he  undertook  to  turn  into  prose,  as  Wendell 
Phillips  wanted  Lincoln's  proclamation,  in  Georgia, 
in  spurs  and  boots.  Whatever  could  be  truly  said  or 
sung,  with  him  must  be  done.  Radical  doctrine,  says 
my  Orthodox  friend,  is  not  practical :  it  goes  to  pieces 
in  North  Street.  In  Parker's  hands  every  thing  the 
doctrine  was  opposed  to  went  to  pieces,  —  as  Schiller 
says  of  the  cannon-ball  shattering  all  in  its  way  that 
it  may  shatter  its  mark.  Call  the  new  views  mist? 
He  condensed  them  into  a  thunder-bolt.  Call  them 
nebulous  ?  He  showed  they  were  world-stuff.  Slavery, 
intemperance,  vice,  criminal  classes,  perishing  classes, 
no  cause  or  human  condition  but  he  took  for  his  prov 
ince.  Overladen  with  social  work  in  Boston,  he 
carried  his  crusade  against  superstition  and  iniquity 
into  every  corner  of  the  land.  Soft-hearted,  he  made 
his  sensibilities  the  furnace  in  which  to  forge  his 
weapons,  beside  the  transcendental  writings  which 
were  his  Springfield  armory.  Many  friendly  ties 
broke  under  his  heresy.  He  seemed  to  have  gone  to 
the  funeral  of  his  affections,  till  he  lost  all  bias  of 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  77 

sentiment,  and  dealt  justice  withont  extraneous  con 
siderations.  He  disowned  the  maxim  that  scorn  and 
anger  were  instruments  unfit  to  be  used.  Only  bad 
men  had  no  right  to  them  !  Whose  contempt  should 
be  so  great,  whose  wrath  so  terrible,  as  that  of  the 
good  against  the  ungodly  and  all  their  works?  He 
had  no  private  malice,  bore  no  grudge  against  the 
individuals  he  publicly  scored  ;  but  he  carried  his  an 
tipathies  of  principle  so  far  as  to  be  styled  an  intel 
lectual  ruffian.  Calling  of  names  in  meeting,  where 
the  assailed  cannot  answer,  appears  to  them  an  unfair 
advantage,  and  stirs  ill  blood.  To  impeach  the  mo 
tives  serves  less  than  to  argue  the  case.  But  though 
his  sarcasm  was  resented  and  complained  of,  it  was 
the  base  custom  or  false  doctrine  the  holders  had 
identified  themselves  with  which  felt  his  severity. 
In  that  his  arrows  stuck.  Dr.  Channing  said  the 
slaveholder  was  to  him  an  abstraction  :  it  was  the 
system  of  slavery  he  discussed.  Mr.  Garrison  an 
swered,  Is  the  slaveholder  an  abstraction  to  the  slave  ? 
To  Parker,  sin  was  a  man.  Living  in  Luther's  time, 
he  would  have  believed  in  and  thrown  his  inkstand  at 
the  devil.  Incarnate  evil  he  condemned,  and  would 
make  way  with  that  Dagon,  planting  his  shoulders 
like  another  Samson  at  the  pillars  of  Gaza.  u  Stick 
or  stone,  whatever  comes  to  hand,"  says  Virgil,  "  the 
mob  will  throw."  His  only  choice  among  means  of  of 
fence  was  of  the  most  effective,  thinking  no  such  rights 
of  war  as  Grotius  describes  belonged  to  wrong-doers, 
in  the  conflict  of  words.  For  the  tyrant  or  traitor  he 
had  wrath,  and  freely  drew  for  his  portrait  a  copy  of 
Herod  or  Iscariot ;  for  the  bibliolater,  ridicule,  —  but 


78  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

his  anger  or  irony,*  like  the  Indian  bullet  that  cleaves 
the  buffalo  and  pursues  its  way,  went  through  the 
embodiment  to  the  essence  of  mischief  in  society  and 
the  soul.  Had  the  Calvinist  some  artificial  condition 
of  redemption?  He  laughed  at  it  as  like  a  red  string 
tied  round  the  little  finger  for  an  amulet  or  charm. 
He  was  not  revealer,  but  administrator,  of  a  new 
testament ;  and  Cobden  or  Cobbett,  Webster  or  Lin 
coln,  did  not  use  a  more  resistless  plainness  of  speech. 
He  had  occasion.  Religion  had  deceased  into  tenet, 
like  the  coral  insect  into  the  coral  bed.  Men  were  at 
ease  in  Zion :  liturgy  had  become  lethargy.  As  the 
keeper  stirs  the  sleepy  lion  with  his  pole,  or  the  elec 
trician  passes  a  spark  through  the  torpid  frame,  or  the 
guide  shakes  and  rouses  the  traveller  sinking  to  deathly 
slumber  in  the  snow,  he  made  no  scruple  of  roughly 
disturbing  the  more  fatal  repose  of  the  elect  in  their 
assurance  of  heaven,  while  leaving  their  brethren  to 
perish  of  oppression  on  earth.  When  the  fugitive  was 
in  his  house,  this  new  Templar  added  cocked  pistols  on 
his  pillow  to  his  grandfather's  rusty  gun  at  the  door, 
and  was  ready  with  word  or  blow.  He  had  a  relish  for 
irony  and  enjoyed  the  fray.  When  one  said  to  him, 
"  You  have  not  your  ancestor's  military  bent,"  "  Have 
I  not?"  he  grimly  replied.  His  brain  was  a  masked 
battery  ever  ready  to  be  unlimbered.  As  public 
questions  degenerate  into  private  disputes,  he  some 
times  descended  into  personalities  and  details  which 
he  should  have  looked  down  on  from  the  sun.  But 
truth  took  a  step  forward  in  his  word. 

Yet  Liberal   Christians,   already  persecuted  as  ex 
tremists,  not  only  refused  to  follow,  but  hesitated  to 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  79 

own  his  freedom  of  thought.  They  had  gone  far 
enough.  It  was  time  to  stop.  Channing  was  the  last 
result  of  reason.  An  inch  more  was  the  jumping-off 
place.  Parker  had  assailed  what  Channing  stoutly 
defended,  —  the  supernatural;  and  the  miracles  of 
the  New  if  not  of  the  Old  Testament  were  now  the 
citadel  whose  defence  alone  prevented  the  surrender 
of  Christianity.  Belief  in  them  was  made  the  test. 
Norton  maintained  the  miraculous  as  the  essence  of  re 
ligion.  Channing  was  disappointed  in  Parker  because 
he  declared  it  unessential,  if  not  untrue  ;  but  Parker 
has  prevailed,  if  not  in  refuting  or  setting  aside,  yet 
in  displacing  it  as  the  touchstone.  Moreover,  he 
questioned  any  verbal  gospel.  The  leading  scholars 
had  with  much  trouble  purged  the  text.  He  denied 
the  authority  of  the  text,  however  pure.  He  removed 
every  outward  landmark,  and  planted  the  boundaries 
in  the  soul.  What  we  shrank  from  was  the  logical 
conclusion.  Yet  the  basis  the  Unitarian  majority 
still  repose  in  is  the  history,  the  prophet,  not  the 
human  mind.  That  is  not  trusted  as  a  final  organ  of 
truth.  Channing  is  leaned  on  as  the  pillar  of  this 
Scripture  position,  and  it  will  by  many  be  held  sacri 
lege  to  doubt  his  claims  as  a  seer.  His  writings, 
however,  hold  not  with  thinkers  their  place.  They 
defy  not  the  tooth  of  time.  His  genius  was  for  reflec 
tion  and  sentiment  rather  than  insight.  Eloquence 
was  his  peculiar  mark.  Who  that  was  young  when 
he  was  in  his  prime  can  forget  the  matchless  sim 
plicity  and  fervor  of  his  speech,  —  that  voice  of  melody 
so  singular,  and  resonance  one  could  not  credit  from 
the  slender  chest,  audible  to  the  vast  congregation 


80  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

because  of  the  might  of  interior  whispers  it  reverber 
ated  ;  not  a  syllable  lost  because  every  one  was  satu 
rated  with  spirit,  and  carrying  the  hearer  to  heaven 
on  that  unique  rising  inflection  which,  though  a  gen 
eration  has  passed,  must  still  ring  in  every  ear  on 
which  it  once  fell?  Yet,  in  the  record  on  the  cold 
page,  eloquence  takes  up  too  much  room.  We  tire, 
if  we  read  for  information  or  new  direction,  of  the 
long  climacteric  roll.  As  the  world  quickens  its  speed, 
we  dislike  preface  :  we  want  pith,  and  praise  orators 
like  the  English  who  give  us  figures  of  arithmetic 
rather  than  rhetoric,  and  come  to  the  point.  Emerson, 
in  the  region  of  intellect,  meets  this  demand.  He  sees 
too  clearly  and  too  much  to  dilate  with  emotion  or 
expand  his  phrase.  If  his  style  for  a  moment  takes 
on  a  fine  sound,  he  resists  temptation,  checks  the 
impulse.  Immensity  of  meaning  constrains  him  to 
study  economy  of  words.  Channing  called  him  poet, 
but  no  philosopher.  But  there  is  no  distinction  of 
poetry  from  truth.  Only  verse-wrights  deal  with  the 
unreal.  Shakspeare  is  as  prudent  as  Bacon,  as  judi 
cious  as  Hooker,  as  metaphysical  as  Kant.  Emerson 
reaches  the  supreme  height,  if  not  of  Mont  Blanc,  yet 
one  of  the  aiguilles. 

As  a  philanthropist,  Channing  was  sublime ;  but 
truth  is  the  highest  philanthropy,  and  whoever  de 
scribes  a  chxle  about  yours  exceeds  you  as  benefactor. 
To  behold  and  declare  how  things  stand  in  the  uni 
verse,  —  to  widen  a  man's  horizon,  —  is  a  greater 
mercy  than  to  feed  or  clothe.  A  good  feeling,  a 
humane  theory,  does  not  suffice.  Conscious  benevo 
lence  is  a  lower  motive  than  Christ's  martyrdom  for 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  8l 

the  truth.  Channing's  feeble  health  and  solitary  life 
separated  him  from  the  race  his  ideal  goodness  would 
bless.  He  spoke  as  an  apostle,  hardly  of  the  same 
blood  with  those  who  heard,  discoursed  downward 
from  his  desk,  distanced  the  laboring  men  he  talked  to, 
held  at  arm's  length  the  masses  for  whom  he  professed 
his  interest  and  in  whom  he  felt  a  serious  concern. 
He  was  not  in  direct  fellowship.  He  had  views  rather 
than  vision.  He  used  a  reflecting  telescope,  not  the 
naked  eye.  Conversing  with  him,  one  felt  not  so 
much  like  a  fellow-creature  as  part  of  the  instrument 
he  was  at  work  with  to  find  and  catalogue  the  celestial 
facts.  He  respected  another's  mind  as  an  explorer 
does  his  companion  for  his  help  in  the  expedition. 
Something  not  organic,  but  derivative,  characterizes 
his  instructions.  "A  potted  Plato"  one  called  him. 
Unsurpassably  lofty  in  feeling  and  aim,  his  page  is  so 
deficient  in  close  reason  or  imagination  one-half  the 
sentences  can  be  omitted  with  no  disturbance  of  the 
method  or  loss  of  sense.  Not  for  the  sake  of  odious 
comparison,  but  of  a  true  leadership,  I  would  lift  the 
standard  on  which  testimony  is  blazoned  in  larger  let 
ters  than  any  scheme  even  of  charity.  To  one  whose 
sermons  had  disturbed  his  audience  it  was  said,  "  Why 
not  suit  and  time  your  matter  better  to  those  in  your 
charge?  I  suppose  you  preach  to  do  good?"  "  No," 
he  answered :  "  I  do  not.  I  preach  to  testify.  Let 
me  be  true.  God  will  see  to  the  good,  which  he  alone 
is  and  does."  The  great  modern  character  is  the 
reporter,  who  keeps  the  world  of  society  and  politics 
in  motion.  But  he  is  tool  and  servant  of  another  head- 
reporter  of  thought,  of  an  interviewer  of  conscience, 


82  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  a  watcher  of  that  sky  Coleridge  looked  at  when  he 
said,  "  Only  after  celestial  observations  can  terrestrial 
charts  be  constructed."  //  will  make  yozi  see  stars, 
says  the  coarse  worldly  proverb,  of  any  sudden  shock. 
But  these  spiritual  stars  are  no  unsubstantial  sparkles 
of  a  stunned  brain.  The  eye  that  saw  them  can  turn  the 
other  way,  and  in  "  English  Traits  "  and  "  Representa 
tive  Men"  prove  as  keen  in  the  earthly  direction  as  in 
the  heavenly.  //  is  all  in  the  eye,  whose  lenses  no 
surveyor's  theodolite  can  match.  He  who  has  sight 
need  not  attack  another  or  defend  himself.  This 
ocular  or  binocular  arm  makes  a  new  style  of  warfare, 
like  that  introduced  into  the  field.  Caesar  led  his 
troops.  Napoleon  figures  in  a  cocked  hat,  and  Jack 
son  on  his  horse.  In  the  holy  bard's  imagery,  the 
Most  High  is  made  to  copy  human  warriors,  gird  his 
sword  on  his  thigh,  and  ride  prosperously  to  battle. 
But  here  is  a  war  most  wonderful  in  history,  fought 
by  an  invisible  man  called  Moltke,  without  musket, 
spear,  or  coat  of  mail,  —  only  map  and  pencil ;  and  a 
million  of  men  stand  ready  to  follow  where  lie  draws. 
It  is  a  ghostly  conflict,  rehearsed  on  the  stage  of  fancy  : 
the  awful  engines  play  harmless  as  a  little  model  in 
the  secret  chambers  of  the  brain,  before  hosts  fall 
dead  and  fortresses  capitulate,  and  civil  populations,  a 
hundred-fold  more  than  the  beleaguering  army,  sur 
render  and  sue  for  peace,  and  the  old  boundaries 
of  nations  are  changed.  Not  by  unreasoning  passion 
are  social  victories  won.  Said  Ichabod  Nichols,  when 
one  talked  of  using  strong  words,  "  Put  your  strength 
into  your  reasons."  Poisoning  of  wells,  Southern  pro 
posals  to  import  plague  into  the  North,  assassination, 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  83 

and  starvation  do  not  carry  the  day.  The  Commu 
nist  throws  petroleum  to  fire  the  city,  pulls  down  the 
Column,  tears  up  coffins  and  murders  priests ;  but 
brings  not  in  the  free,  equal,  and  fraternal  reign.  In 
America  or  France  such  methods  make  the  gentler 
sex  the  worse.  Light  is  better  than  lightning ;  and 
lightning  is  the  best  social  and  civil  help  when  tamed 
to  run  soft  and  obedient  on  an  errand.  The  great 
reformer  is  the  discerner, — 

"  Who  revolutions  works  without  a  murmur, 
Or  rustling  of  a  leaf  beneath  the  skies." 

Transcendentalism  relies  on  those  ideas  in  the  mind 
which  are  laws  in  the  life.  Pantheism  is  said  to  sink 
man  and  nature  in  God,  Materialism  to  sink  God 
and  man  in  nature,  and  Transcendentalism  to  sink 
God  and  nature  in  man.  But  the  Transcendentalist,  at 
least,  is  belied  and  put  in  jail  by  the  definition,  which 
is  so  neat  at  the  expense  of  truth.  He  made  con 
sciousness,  not  sense,  the  ground  of  truth  ;  and,  in  the 
present  devotion  to  physical  science  and  turn  of  philos 
ophy  to  build  the  universe  on  foundations  of  matter, 
we  need  to  vindicate  and  reassert  his  premise.  Is  the 
soul  reared  on  the  primitive  rock?  or  is  no  rock  primi 
tive,  but  the  deposit  of  spirit,  therefore  in  its  lowest 
form  alive,  and  ever  rising  into  organism  to  reach  the 
top  of  the  eternal  circle  again,  —  as  in  the  well  one 
bucket  goes  down  empty  and  the  other  rises  full? 
The  mistake  is  to  make  the  everlasting  things  subjects 
of  argument  instead  of  sight.  No  logic  can  compass 
them.  The  more  we  reason  about  them  in  the  terms 
of  the  understanding,  the  farther  we  are  away.  Wait 


84  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

awhile,  says  the  investigator,  and  we  may  tell  you  if 
God  exists  and  you  are  immortal.  But  God  is  no 
conclusion.  A  Deity  deduced  from  phenomena  were 
finite  as  they,  and  nothing  worth.  God  is  the  com 
mencement,  if  he  be  at  all  ;  and  to  expect,  by  breaking 
open  some  atom,  to  see  him  come  out  like  the  smoke 
into  a  giant  from  the  fisherman's  box  is  atheism  at  the 
start. 

The  Transcendentalist  sought  a  basis  of  knowledge 
beyond  the  senses,  and  of  religion  beyond  ecclesiastical 
services.  His  religious  feelings  were  hurt  by  going 
to  church,  and  he  encountered  the  odium  of  going  into 
the  woods  and  fields,  or  on  to  the  sea  instead.  He 
affronted  the  procession  of  Sabbath-keepers  with  the 
needless  insult  of  secular  avocations,  or  sports  in  plain 
sight.  Because  it  was  Sunda}7,  in  a  meeting-house  and 
a  pulpit,  and  with  a  Scripture  text  and  ordained  minis 
ter,  bigotry  and  bad  scholarship  were  not  sanctified. 
He  heard  not  only  the  truckman  and  porter  swear,  but 
the  name  of  God  taken  in  vain  in  the  worst  profanity 
of  the  lifeless  repetition  of  liturgical  forms.  In  rocky 
resounding  clefts,  he  could  worship  better  than  in  the 
house  made  with  hands.  Standing  outside  the  church- 
door,  the  music  of  praise  pleased  him  better  that  he 
could  not  hear  the  sectarian  sermon.  On  the  reeling 
steamer's  deck,  with  ecstasy  through  the  cabin-win 
dows  came  to  him  the  anthem  accompanied  with  a 
part,  described  in  no  musical  notation,  by  the  winds 
and  waves.  He  disowned  the  temple's  peculiar  claim  ; 
and  a  band  of  play-actors  with  the  sacrifice  of  their 
talent  and  time  to  help  some  poor  and  aged  member, 
or  promote  a  worthy  cause,  made  the  stage  a  pulpit, 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  85 

and  the  theatre  a  church.  Holy  day  or  place  ?  There 
is  no  such  thing.  A  holy  man  or  woman,  and  a  Holy 
Spirit,  but  no  holy  time  or  spot  save  that  hallowed 
by  a  righteous  act.  Sacred  office  or  exercise?  An 
innocent  child  teaches  more  than  a  sensual  priest, 
politic  cardinal,  or  bad  pope  ;  and  we  scout  the  notion 
that  any  base  officials  are  in  trust  with  the  waters  of 
salvation,  or  have  a  lock  on  the  river  of  life  as  one 
commands  a  valve  or  faucet  with  his  hand.  A  face 
with  the  beauty  of  that  shadow  cast  by  the  first  con 
sciousness  of  a  parentage  beyond  earthly  father  or 
mother  communicates  wisdom  which  canonical  books 
and  apostolic  succession  cannot  match.  As  in  old 
time  some  people  worshipped  in  churches  and  clois 
ters  outside  city  walls,  these  Transcendentalists  de 
fied  the  conventional  adoration  with  a  piety  of  their 
own. 

The  Transcendental  school  must,  however,  encounter 
one  criticism.  Part  of  it  led  into  the  doctrine  of  Divine 
Impersonality.  Emerson  followed  Cousin.  The  ob 
jection  to  Personality  was  its  supposed  limitation.  It 
lowered  the  Infinite.  But  you  say  a  great  deal  about 
God  when  you  say  he  is  impersonal.  You  lower  him 
negatively,  and  deny  his  chief  attribute,  if  not  his  being. 
The  guilt  of  presumption  is  not  avoided,  but  incurred. 
Does  piety  decline  to  imprison  him  in  human  meas 
ures?  We  had  thought  humanity  not  his  prison,  but 
his  image.  What  other  larger  measure  of  him  do 
you  propose?  The  sky  were  a  prison.  Besides,  we 
do  not  measure  God  :  he  measures  himself  with  count 
less  graduations  in  all  his  creatures,  and  without  this 
self-measurement  on  an  endless  scale  we  could  not 


86  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

know  him  at  all.  We  conceive  ill  of  him  in  outward 
dimensions  like  a  giant.  He  can  fill  the  firmament, 
and  dole  himself  out  in  the  wing  of  a  fly,  brain  of  an 
ant,  or  burnish  and  buzz  of  a  bee.  He  is  spirit ;  and 
that  we  cannot  imagine  as  impersonal.  Spirit  is  intelli 
gence  and  intent.  If  you  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  him 
purpose,  you  resist  the  instinct  of  mankind  in  all  ages, 
which  from  the  Hottentot  to  the  Hindoo,  the  China 
man  to  the  North-American  Indian,  the  Greek  to 
the  Turk,  and  the  Christian  to  the  Mahometan,  finds 
the  staple  and  fundamental  article  of  its  devotion  in  the 
•will  of  God.  In  teaching  that  he  is  spirit,  and  that 
birth  from  the  Spirit  is  like  the  sound  of  the  wind, 
Jesus  curiously  identifies  spirit  and  person  as  syno 
nyms  of  speech.  Spirit  or  Person :  neither  implies 
finiteness  more  than  the  other. 

The  world  affirms  Personality.  Is  world  or  whirled 
its  proper  name?  What  is  it  but  motion  from  centres 
of  force,  in  mighty  balls  or  imponderable  particles : 
in  the  stone  that  resolves  itself  into  orbits  of  atoms, 
and  the  drop  that  is  a  sea  for  living  things  to  swim,  nor, 
more  than  leviathan,  lack  room  ?  All  this  action,  and 
no  will  ?  Nothing  too  heavy  to  lift,  or  too  light  and 
little  to  get  hold  of;  yet  no  agent,  meaning,  energy, 
or  behest?  If  no  divine,  then  no  human  personality, 
which  were  a  causeless  effect.  In  scholastic  phrase 
God  is  not  personated,  but  personating  Person.  If 
this  human  quality  is  no  gauge  of  him,  he  is  lost  alto 
gether,  as  we  are  lost ;  for  with  our  personality  goes 
immortality,  and  we  are  photograph-plates  taking 
pictures  to-day,  broken  to-morrow  ;  and  then  no  more 
impressions.  A  strange  way  to  dignify  and  exalt  the 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  87 

Divinity  to  make  him  and  his  work  such  a  shallow 
fading  surface  !  To  say  he  is  an  idea  of  the  human 
mind,  and  comes  to  consciousness,  or  is  conscious  of 
himself  in  it,  does  not  belittle  him.  Ideas  are  substan 
tial  and  eternal ;  and  where  or  how  else  he  is  conscious 
who  shall  say  ?  You  have  several  homes,  —  in  city, 
country,  at  the  Springs,  or  by  the  sea.  His  houses 
who  shall  number? 

Person  signifies  the  unfathomable.  Who  shall  say 
where  the  whisper  of  the  wind  begins?  A  man's 
voice  or  sound  is  from  his  inmost  self,  like  the  character 
an  actor  performed  through  his  mask  ;  and  what  is  the 
material  universe  but  the  pipe  Omnipotence  shapes, 
as  a  boy  his  whistle,  to  play  what  tunes  he  likes.  God 
is  the  word  :  what  speaks  in  the  beginning  was  with 
him  and  was  he.  Personality  is  no  degradation.  As 
the  sparkle  of  a  dewdrop  implies  the  sun,  and  that  is 
a  spark  to  the  light  that  feeds  it ;  as  a  trickling  drop 
balances  the  sea,  and  nothing  less  could  be  its  parent ; 
as  the  running  of  the  drops  together  between  the 
shrunken  boards  of  a  barn  first  brought  to  my  mind 
the  mystery  of  the  world  ;  as  a  breath  were  not  with 
out  boundless  ether  ;  as  a  pebble  dropped  in  the  water 
or  as  a  blow  or  gesture  of  the  hand  goes  to  the  con 
fines  of  Nature  and  is  co-extensive  with  gravitation,  — 
so  the  faintest  emotion  implies  the  Most  High  ;  and 
God  takes  up  his  abode  in  the  lowly  and  contrite  heart. 

Doubtless  we  bely  him,  as  we  do  every  thing,  in 
our  speech.  But  it  is  greater  untruth  to  him  not  to 
speak.  Some  word  we  cannot  help.  Those  most  stout 
like  Goethe  to  say  all  words  are  inadequate  go  on  to 
use  them,  though  every  word,  used  or  emphasized 


88  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

alone,  cleaves  from  our  thought  and  breaks  down. 
But  if  we  discard  the  Infinite  Self  we  lose  the  Uni 
verse,  which  is  Version  of  One,  or  Person  translated ; 
and  what  does  Person  mean  but  that  the  world  is  not 
senseless  surface,  but  stands  for  something,  was  made 
in  earnest,  and  not  by  accident  or  for  sport?  Person 
ality  is  not  part  of  it,  but  the  whole,  —  top  and  bottom 
of  things,  sum  and  substance  of  philosophy  ;  and  the 
impersonality  the  sage  imputes  as  an  honor  is  poor, 
cheap,  and  finite.  We  argue  what  are  called  the 
Carlyle  and  Buckle  theories  of  history.  Are  events 
determined  by  persons,  or  by  laws?  If  history  relates 
what  is  done  by  inspiration  or  design,  the  question 
disappears.  Personality  is  nothing,  or  it  is  all.  It  is 
not  the  pound  we  put  God  in,  but  essence  of  the  free 
dom  which  is  his  necessity,  and  to  share  which  is  man's 
glory.  If  we  are  personal,  we  have  a  destiny  ;  if  im 
personal,  only  a  doom.  But  this  personal  persistence 
was  by  some  Transcendentalists  treated  with  slight; 
and  all  curiosity  about  it  flouted  as  impertinent  peep 
ing  into  what  we  had  no  business  with.  Such  scorn 
is  affront  to  the  aspiration  of  mankind.  Forceythe 
Willson,  after  listening  to  a  lecture  that  brought  im 
mortality  into  doubt,  said,  "  Philosophy  is  good  ;  but  if 
philosophy  contradicts  my  instincts,  I  throw  it  over 
board/' 

Personality  alone  vindicates  prayer.  If  Deity  be 
Immeasurable  Consciousness  in  which  I  have  part  and 
lot,  then  prayer  is  no  gymnastic  self-excitation  begin 
ning  and  ending  with  my  own  will,  but  some  stir  of 
the  Divinity  it  comes  from  and  goes  to.  It  constrains 
God  so  far  as  his  liberty  can  be  constrained  ;  for  there 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  09 

is  that  he  cannot  help.  How  can  he  help  seeing  and 
hearing  his  child  whose  voice  is  part  of  his  soliloquy? 
Can  he  say,  I  will  not  listen  or  look?  He  is  bound 
in  his  own  nature  to  hear  and  answer  prayer ;  for  he 
is  not  one  Individual  and  you  another,  he  sitting  up 
there  with  ready-made  laws  to  apply  to  you  as  a  foreign 
substance  ;  but  you  and  he,  even  as  Jesus  and  he, 
are  One.  He  cannot  get  along  without  you,  or  avoid 
blessing  you.  Your  inmost  desire  is  his  interpreter. 
Were  prayer  an  arbitrary  whim,  across  the  track  of 
his  predestination  it  were  crushed  like  a  pin  on  the 
iron  rail.  But  request  or  answer  is  foreordained  and 
insured  against  possible  failure  or  loss. 

To  one  Transcendental  philosopher  —  Mr.  Alcott  — 
we  are  in  debt  for  his  vital  conception  of  Personality. 
A  pure  mystic,  subsisting  on  the  thin  sweet  grass  of  the 
mount  of  vision,  in  the  full  sweep  of  the  pervading 
theory  that  blew  like  a  trade-wind  against  the  concep 
tion  of  a  conscious  and  willing  Deity,  he  kept  his  foot 
ing  and  saw  God  keeping  his.  In  all  his  Conversations 
East  and  West  expounding  matters,  so  singular  to 
charm  and  hard  to  penetrate,  he  has  held  by  selfhood 
as  the  sheet-anchor  of  creation,  and  rendered  a  service 
for  which  his  memory  will  be  honorable  and  dear. 
He  was  true  Transcendentalist,  teaching  that  the  soul  is 
no  ephemeral  thing,  but  lives  beyond  the  momentary 
impression,  in  the  past,  the  distant,  the  future,  and  in  that 
eternity  where  time  disappears  or  all  times  are  alike. 
True  philosophy  is  no  peculiarity  of  dainty  speculation, 
but  staple  of  practical  life.  It  is  an  idea  becoming 
flesh,  or  common  sense  exalted  by  sentiment.  Not 


90  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

only  a  poet,  like  Wordsworth,  can  address  his  ideal 
child,  — 

"Thou  whose  exterior  semblance  doth  bely 
Thy  soul's  immensity," 

not  only  Shakspeare  can  make  Lady  Macbeth  say  to 
her  husband,  — 

"  Thy  letters  have  transported  me  beyond 
This  ignorant  present,  and  I  feel  now 
The  future  in  the  instant,  " 

but  the  negro  pilot  could  tell  the  captain  in  Charleston 
harbor,  "  Wind  and  tide  against  you,  it  is  ten  miles 
to  the  city  ;  but,  weather  favoring,  you  are  there  now." 
We  are  not  blind  to  what  we  see  through.  The  Tran- 
scendentalist  leaps  out  of  routine,  shakes  off  the  weight 
of  custom,  most  are  fettered  by  and  drag  as  a  ball  and 
chain.  He  detaches  every  thing  from  himself,  to  make 
it  an  object  of  contemplation  and  enchanting  marvel. 
His  own  personality  he  wonders  at,  and  tries  half 
vainly  to  explore.  "  I  want  to  know  more  of  myself, 
—  this  very  Jonathan  :  I  have  lived  seventy  years  with 
him,  and  he  is  a  great  mystery  to  me."  His  theory 
enters  into  character  as  well  as  thought.  While  dog 
matism  makes  out  its  exhaustive  schemes  of  the  uni 
verse,  and  ambitious  conceit  and  desire  to  shine 
babble  their  presumptuous  judgments,  he  sits  and 
smiles  at  the  depth  their  lines  dangle  in  ;  and,  when 
they  correct  or  contradict  him,  learns  not  to  answer 
again.  He  asks  nothing  for  himself  but  to  be  allowed 
still  to  think,  and  put  his  observations  in  words  which 
passion  may  reject  till  reason  receives.  He  takes  all 
injury  and  wrong,  from  foes  or  friends,  out  of  his  sen- 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  9! 

sibility  and  into  the  alembic  of  his  reflections,  whence 
the  crude  ore  and  rough  fragments  run  pure  gold.  No 
Caliban  or  Shylock  but  enriches  the  poet's  drama ; 
no  people  so  bad  and  hard  the  thinker  cannot  enjoy. 
Said  my  friend,  I  like  that  "  Great  Misery  "  island  :  it 
is  like  so  many  folks  I  have  seen,  barren  and  unpromis 
ing  at  a  distance  and  first  sight ;  but  when  you  are 
there,  the  green  fields  are  all  around  you.  His  forecast 
lights  up  the  darkest  hour.  Said  my  friend,  walking 
among  the  cliffs,  Reasoning  is  like  the  rock  ahead  you 
hope  to  mount  and  see  further  from ;  and  faith  has 
foretaste  of  paradise. 

We  shall  discover  that  our  glory  is  not  pure  passivity, 
to  be  the  sport  of  impressions,  like  feathers  in  every 
wandering  breeze,  but  personality.  We  shall  be  con 
vinced  that  conscious  selfhood  rooted  in  the  self  of 
Nature,  and  spreading  into  man  or  angel,  is  no  selfish 
ness,  but  the  only  possible  generosity.  A  certain  dis 
solute  sympathy  may  survive  self-reliance ;  but  all 
genuine  love  and  sacrifice  die  with  it.  No  earthly 
good  a  noble  pejsjrion  will  not  sooner  decline  or  im 
part  than  demand.  Personality  has  no  measure  :  it 
is  measure  of  every  thing  else.  It  is  the  golden  rod 
with  which  the  angel  takes  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  New  Jerusalem.  In  the  present  rage  of  physical 
science  the  particles  are  contending  with  it  for  victory. 
But  they  are  its  servants,  and  usurpers  when  they 
snatch  at  its  rightful  sway.  The  thinker  goes  with  his 
thought,  which  can  reach  nothing  beyond  itself.  No 
God  is  cognizable  above  my  inmost  being,  which  he  is. 
Where  my  imagination  goes,  I  go  ;  and  it  goes  to  him 
and  heaven. 


92  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  objection  to  personality  in  God  is  its  likening 
him  to  man's  which  is  limited.  But  this  objection 
assumes  its  own  fact.  Who  has  laid  down  or  re 
ported  the  metes  and  bounds  of  human  personality? 
It  is  unlimited.  Person  in  the  sense  of  appearance  is 
finite.  The  body  which  the  soul  is  in,  or  rather  which 
is  in  the  soul,  has  limits,  but  not  that  in  which  the 
body  is  contained.  Man's  eyes,  says  Herbert,  "  dis 
mount  the  highest  star."  David's  description  of  trying 
to  leave  the  Lord  by  ascending  to  heaven,  or  making 
his  bed  in  hell,  or  flying  on  the  wings  of  the  morning 
to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  not  only  shows  where 
God  was,  but  where  David  was  !  Is  our  imagination 
the  compass  of  Nature?  But  our  imagination  is  the 
carriage  we  sit  in.  Paul  knew  a  man  who  was  in  the 
seventh  heaven.  Rise  high  and  float  far  as  the  balloon 
will,  the  gazer  from  beleaguered  Paris  walls,  or  a 
Fourth  of  July  muster-field,  outstrips  it  standing  on 
the  ground. 

"  One  morn  is  in  the  mighty  heaven, 
And  one  in  pur  desire !  " 

But  the  last  outshines  the  first. 

"  And  those  eyes,  the  break  of  day, 
Lights  that  do  mislead  the  morn." 

Shakspeare  knew  space  was  not  the  holder,  but  the 
accident  and  servant  of  the  mind.  We,  like  God, 
possess  it ;  not  it  us.  "  I  own  part  of  Boston  Common," 
said  Father  Taylor  ;  "  and  I  will  tell  nobody  which  part 
it  is."  We  cannot  tell  where  our  property  in  Nature 
ends. 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  93 

Nor  is  human  personality  limited  in  time  more  than 
in  space.  Doubtless  the  almanac  or  family  register 
will  tell  us  when  we  were  born.  But  our  soul  is  older 
than  our  organism.  It  precedes  its  clothing.  It  is 
the  cause,  not  the  consequence,  of  its  material  elements  ; 
else,  as  materialists  understand,  it  does  not  properly 
exist.  Jesus  asserted  the  truth  of  all  men  when  he 
said,  "Before  Abraham  was,  I  am."  Who  can  tell 
where  he  began?  It  is  a  wise  child  that  knows  his 
own  father.  Grandparents  reappear  in  the  babes  they 
play  with.  The  Jews  thought  older  prophets  returned 
in  later  ones  ;  and  it  might  be  Elias  that  had  come 
back  in  Jesus.  Naturalism  traces  man  farther  than  to 
Eden,  and  finds  his  progenitor  in  some  fossil  fish  or 
reptile  that  lived  measureless  cycles  ago.  Napoleon 
said  he  was  the  founder  of  his  own  family.  We  were 
our  own  ancestors,  and  shall  find  it  quite  impossible 
to  decide  our  commencement  in  time,  though  we  point 
to  our  cradle  in  the  garret.  We  all  lay  in  one  crib,  if 
we  knew  where  it  was ;  and  Plato's  doctrine  of  pre- 
existence  we  have  laughed  at  only  to  see  it  recur  under 
the  flag  of  the  straitest  orthodoxy  of  our  day. 

Human  personality  has  no  intrinsic  limitation  in 
itself.  It  is  sometimes  said,  men  or  particular  races 
of  men,  as  the  Negro  or  Chinese,  stop  growing  like 
an  animal  or  plant.  But  they  are  only  by  adverse 
circumstance  or  their  fellow-creature's  oppression  teth 
ered  for  a  time.  None  can  predict  or  set  any  goal 
to  the  progress  of  science.  Yet  that  is  only  one  of 
the  lines :  art,  society,  government,  are  others  in  the 
progress  of  man.  This  shock  of  conventional  horror 
at  supposing  any  likeness  of  God  with  man  is  as  pro- 


94  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

fane  as  it  is  inhuman.  God  and  man  must  rise  or 
fall  together.  We  have  been  afraid  and  ashamed 
to  think  nobly  of  ourselves.  But  he  is  like  us !  He 
made  us  in  his  image  ;  and,  laugh  at  it  who  will, 
we  do  and  must  somehow  make  him  in  ours ;  for 
were  the  parent  unlike  his  child,  it  were  absurd  to 
speak  of  parent  or  child. 

Nothing  in  us  lasts  like  faith.  Richter  calls  it  the 
night-flower  blooming  into  the  hour  when  sense  and 
memory  fade.  I  learned  the  fact  in  an  involuntary 
experiment  of  being  thrown  to  the  ground  by  a  train 
of  cars.  It  was  "  a  vision  of  sudden  death."  For 
a  moment  it  was  all  of  death  that  can  be  known,  only 
that  in  returning  consciousness  came  resurrection  to 
myself  and  my  friends.  But  in  that  moment  of  de 
cease  was  no  fear.  Had  I  been  riding  above,  not 
with  a  crushed  limb  underneath,  I  could  have  felt  no 
more  sure  of  the  wise  regularity,  in  whose  chariot 
without  falling  I  was  borne. 

Orthodoxy  and  Physical  Science  are  considered 
foes.  But  they  build  on  the  same  foundation.  In  their 
method  they  meet.  The  last  asserts  we  get  all  knowl 
edge,  and  the  first  that  we  get  religious  knowledge, 
through  the  senses,  —  the  Book,  the  Prophecy,  the 
Miracle  being  the  foundations  of  faith,  as  if  there 
were  less  piety  in  Plato  than  in  Locke.  Transcen 
dental  Thought  is  the  only  communion  with  God, 
save  by  some  proxy  that  casts  our  vote  for  us,  like 
a  master  for  his  slaves,  or  patron  for  everybody  under 
the  roof  of  his  mill.  What  wonder  the  believer 
should  conclude  in  the  scepticism  with  which  the 
scientist  begins,  and  doubt  be  the  Land's  End  for  them 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  95 

both.  With  neither  is  any  option.  The  structures 
they  put  up  are  different,  but  the  site  of  both  alike 
is  the  sand ;  only  the  believer  sees  not  how  he  is 
logically  shut  up  to  the  scientist's  frank  expectation 
that  the  rain  and  the  wind  will  beat  and  blow  till  the 
edifice  fall,  according  to  the  Latin  proverb  that  we 
owe  our  possessions  and  ourselves  alike  to  death. 
The  consistent  physicist,  like  Mill,  carries  his  point 
to  the  denial  of  all  necessary  truth.  The  figures  of 
the  multiplication-table  and  the  properties  of  a  trian 
gle,  all  the  axioms  of  the  mathematician  and  geom 
eter,  a  square,  cube,  line,  or  circle,  may  be  such  onlv 
to  us  and  not  in  some  other  world,  there  being  no 
such  thing  as  ascertainable  truth.  The  contemptuous 
proverb,  "  He  does  not  know  much,  and  what  he  does 
know  he  does  not  know  for  certain,"  hits  the  whole 
race  with  its  vulgar  fling.  The  Christian  solace  so 
many  millions  have  hugged  to  their  breast,  u  What  thou 
knowest  not  now  thou  shalt  know  hereafter,"  is  re 
fused  ;  for  death  is  no  solution,  but  only  the  last  dodge. 
So  truth  is  not  what  is,  but  what  one  troweth  ;  a 
name  for  everybody's  notion  and  all  contradictory 
beliefs !  It  is  the  honor  of  the  Transcendentalist  — 
every  great  soul  from  Hebrew  Moses  to  Hebraic 
John  Brown — to  affirm  truth  otherwise  as  eternal 
vision  of  what  suffers  no  change,  the  consonance  of 
reality  in  Nature  and  the  mind.  Apart  from  percep 
tion  truth  is  not.  The  Greek  tongue  excels  the 
English  in  having  a  verb  for  truth  corresponding  to 
the  noun,  and  the  apostle  speaks  of  "  truthing  in 
love."  No  canonical  book  has  a  nobler  verse  than 
that  in  the  Apocrypha,—"  Wisdom  is  a  loving  spirit :  " 


96  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

for  love  is  not  born  of  wisdom,  but  wisdom  of  love ; 
and  neither  is  born  of  matter  "or  the  flesh.  To  rest 
our  case  in  miracle  is  to  rest  it  in  the  letter  that  kill- 
eth ;  for  all  phenomena,  like  the  letters  in  the  Primer, 
are  but  an  alphabet  making  sense  only  as  arranged 
by  some  intelligence.  It  matters  not  what  shape 
matter  may  take :  it  is  an  unmeaning  syllable  till 
adopted  by  the  intellect.  If  the  water  became  wine, 
or  a  few  loaves  and  fishes  a  ton  of  food,  it  was  a 
cipher  still  of  no  significance  before  it  was  chosen 
to  convey  the  spirit's  despatch.  It  is  not  the  wire 
stretching  from  England  to  America  for  which  we 
care  ;  but  the  messages  sent  over  it  beneath  the  deep, 
unquenched  by  all  its  billows,  unsilenced  by  its 
mighty  roar. 

Preoccupied  with  ideas,  God's  true  mediators,  we 
look  upon  marvels  with  an  incurious  eye.  I  confess 
I  am  not  moved  when  the  table  tips.  The  wonder 
is  just  as  great  when  it  reposes  firmly  on  its  legs. 
Stones  thrown  through  the  windows  by  freakish  elfs 
hold  not  my  reflections  like  the  glass  made  from  the 
flux  of  their  crumbled  grains.  All  is  in  discrimina 
tion  ;  nothing  in  the  gross  fact.  The  delicate  odor 
of  a  tea-rose,  said  one,  transports  me :  but  at  one 
smell  of  the  pond-lily  I  say,  No  more  I  thank  you  ! 
The  Divinity  gives  us  facts  enough.  We  cannot 
manage  one  of  a  thousand.  I  rather  ask  him  to  stay 
his  hand  than  from  his  horn  of  plenty  continue  to 
pour.  He  has  led  me  into  the  Gallery ;  and  I  have 
no  fear  of  his  hurrying  me  out  before  it  is  half  seen. 
The  Transfiguration  by  Raphael,  or  Wedding-feast 
in  Cana  by  Paul  Veronese,  or  Conception  by  Corregio, 


TRANSCENDENTALISM.  97 

is  not  a  subject  that  holds  or  concentres  my  regards 
more  than  any  simply  human  theme,  —  a  ship  in  port 
by  Turner,  landscape  by  Corot,  or  the  "Sower"  by 
Millet ;  for  God  is  as  near  in  the  field  or  on  the  sea 
as  by  any  mountain,  in  any  marriage  or  origin  of  life, 
with  whatever  unusual  signs.  Sinai  made  no  better 
thunder  and  lightning  than  the  Jura,  or  the  wood- 
crowned  hill  whence  in  my  boyhood  the  flaming 
cloud  made  its  rush,  and  the  red  bolt  leaped  as  a 
sword  from  the  scabbard..  I  am  grateful  to  antece 
dents  and  ancestors ;  'but  why  explore  the  processes 
by  which  they  earned  what  I  inherit,  instead  of  for  my 
posterity  earning  more  ?  I  value  the  Bible  ;  but  shall 
I  prefer  it  to  what  it  records  ?  It  were  to  prize  the 
family-register  before  the  domestic  joy.  The  Scrip 
tures  are  not  authority,  but  notes  and  memorandum 
book  for  experience,  which  has  no  Heretofore  or 
Hereafter  or  Elsewhere,  but  interminable  omnipres 
ent  Now. 


IV. 

RADICALISM. 

WE  learn  how  much  there  is  in  a  name  to  love  or 
hate.  The  apostles,  forbid  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  Jesus,  rejoiced  to  be  counted  worthy  to  suffer 
shame  for  it.  It  is  not  the  word  that  is  detested,  but 
the  thought,  the  dearest  part  of  a  man.  He  that  lov- 
eth  father  or  mother  more  than  that  is  not  worthy  of 
it.  "  I  do  not  like  the  word  Radical "  is  the  last  phrase 
in  thousand-fold  repetition.  But  is  it  well  to  quarrel 
with  the  dictionary,  like  Don  Quixote  with  the  wind 
mill?  Words  do  not  exist  by  our  permission  or  any 
governor's  proclamation.  God  makes  them.  They 
are  born  out  of  the  air.  Democrat,  Republican,  Cop 
perhead,  Communist,  —  it  were  easier  to  reduce  a  fort 
than  silence  any  such  epithet.  Chartist,  Fenian,  In 
ternational, —  William  or  Victoria  might  be  glad  to 
expunge  those  titles.  But  they  will  not  down  at  the 
bidding  of  count  or  king.  No  arrival  so  important  as 
that  of  a  new  denomination,  a  name  in  the  mouth,  an 
organic  power  on  the  earth.  Dr.  Channing  said  he 
belonged  to  no  sect,  but  willingly  bore  the  name  Uni 
tarian  on  account  of  its  odium.  I  do  not  choose  to  be 
called  Radical ;  but,  if  it  be  an  unpopular  designation, 


RADICALISM.  99 

label  me  with  it.  It  must  mean  something  good.  Let 
us  be  what  respectability  and  conservatism  have  an 
instinct  to  scorn !  Out  of  some  corruption  is  forged 
every  new  thunder-bolt  of  speech  which  people  depre 
cate  and  dread.  Yet  a  bad  name  loses  its  repulsive- 
ness  by  degrees.  As  the  tortoise  shell  is  cut  and 
scraped,  dropping  some  roughness  with  each  process, 
at  every  touch  of  the  saw  and  file  and  sand,  to  get  its 
last  polish  from  the  human  palm,  so  a  distasteful  term, 
Whig  or  Abolitionist,  under  the  critical  knife  and  after 
much  handling,  shows  signs  of  preciousness,  becomes 
bright  and  smooth.  Print  it,  roll  it  under  your  tongue, 
and  it  will  come  out  right. 

Everybody  takes  his  turn  at  reform.  The  Tory 
Eldon  said  with  an  oath,  if  he  could  begin  again  it 
would  be  as  an  agitator.  We  know  the  ethics  of  com 
promise  and  temporize.  Men  have  made  Christ's 
tenderness  in  withholding  some  things  from  his  disci 
ples  a  warrant  for  treachery.  An  eminent  preacher 
says  he  has  thoughts  it  were  premature  to  publish. 
What  is  the  time  to  tell  a  thought  but  when  you  have 
it?  The  inspiration  is  your  commission. 

Radicalism  is  rootedness,  the  quality  of  the  root, 
which  Paul  says  we  are  borne  by  and  do  not  bear, 
the  stability  of  plant  or  man.  Is  it  tearing  up  by  the 
roots?  Jesus  announces  that  operation  for  what  his 
Father  had  not  set  out.  But  the  gardener  knows  how 
the  good  tree  is  made  thrifty  by  going  down  to  its 
roots  to  stir  them.  Scraping  my  old  myrtle  makes  it 
quick  and  green. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  radicalism.  The  one  boasts : 
the  other  prays,  and  joins  the  great  communion  of 


IOO  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

human  dependence.  Faith  is  no  manufacture  or  article 
of  private  consumption,  but  a  tradition  of  the  human 
race.  The  mark,  not  to  be  counterfeited,  of  the  genu 
ine  Radical  is  humility,  —  confessing  God  in  history, 
that  we  are  lifted  to  our  vantage-ground  by  all  fore 
going  action  as  mountains  rise  by  successive  throes. 
My  dear  friend  professes  to  put  himself  squarely  out 
side  of  Christianity,  and  thinks  so  he  does ;  but  he  can 
no  more  do  it  than  eliminate  from  his  veins  his  ances 
tral  blood.  Do  we  disdain  to  inherit  civilization,  gov 
ernment,  art,  material  benefit  from  our  sires  ?  Let  us 
then  raze  the  old  houses  and  shops,  despise  the  custom 
of  the  ancient  stand,  pry  up  the  rails  we  ride  over, 
and,  as  the  Irishman  said,  to  decry  asking  my  neigh 
bor's  help,  not  be  under  a  compliment  to  anybody  ! 
Is  there  no  moral  capital?  Can  we  dispense  with 
customs  and  institutions  more  than  with  the  wharf  and 
street,  reservoir  and  sidewalk,  town-house  and  bridge? 
Jacob's  well  stood  for  more  than  water.  Better  un- 
limber  your  organ  of  destructiveness  on  outward  im 
provements,  than  those  within.  Continuation,  not 
origination,  is  our  part.  Build  on  the  old  basis,  stand 
and  walk  a  step  forward  in  the  old  path.  If  God  be 
father,  the  Past  is  mother,  of  our  mind.  I  heard  of  a 
man  preferring  his  immortality  to  his  source,  his  own 
existence  to  his  Maker's.  He  was  logical,  on  the  sup 
position  that  he  was  made  by  himself  and  for  himself, 
and,  like  the  Pharisee,  to  pray  thus  with  himself.  But 
if  there  be  such  a  thing  as  Humanity,  that  I  am  part 
of,  then  there  is  Divinity.  A  disinherited  man  we 
pity ;  a  disinherited  race  were  extinct. 

Step  by  step :  that  title  of  the  story  is  the  tale  of 


RADICALISM.  IOI 

mankind.  We  are  to  rear  an  Art  Museum.  On  what 
ground  ?  First,  a  wilderness  ;  then  a  battle-field  with 
savage  nature  and  more  savage  man  ;  then  a  harvest- 
field  ;  then  a  mart  of  commerce  ;  lastly,  the  hall  of 
knowledge  and  delight.  Contempt  of  the  rudest  abo 
riginal  ways  knocks  out  the  underpinning. 

But  we  must  go  on.  "  There  are  in  Boston,"  said 
one  to  an  old  citizen,  "  no  ancient  families  to  justify 
pride  of  birth."  The  citizen  replied,  "We  have  their 
descendants."  "  Point  me,"  was  the  rejoinder,  "  to 
one  case  of  the  blue  blood."  "  I  do  not  like  to  be 
egotistical,"  answered  again  the  long-descended  man. 
Doubtless  we  need  the  grace  of  self-criticism  to  temper 
self-complacency.  Our  individuality  runs  not  only  into 
variety,  but  oddity.  In  avoiding  monotony  and  uni 
formity,  we  lose  unity  in  our  architecture.  Let  the 
new  Museum  be  an  academy  to  reclaim  us  from  our 
riot  of  independence  to  some  standard  of  beauty  and 
criterion  of  taste,  not  only  in  our  edifices  but  our  man 
ners  and  thoughts,  to  grow  from  that  root  without 
which  there  can  neither  be  a  great  community  nor  a 
California  pine. 

But  let  us  have  the  branch  as  well  as  the  root.  No 
conceit  of  progress  is  so  gross  as  that  of  eschewing  all 
change.  What  absurdity  is  this  circular  and  printed 
sketch  of  doctrine,  sent  us  to  sign,  as  if  words  could  be 
bonds  or  bounds  !  We  must  be  atomically  united,  like 
the  parts  of  a  tree,  with  the  Spirit  for  our  enlivening 
sap.  At  a  meeting  for  church  union  I  heard  a  speech 
informing  the  company  how  Unitarians  were  to  be 
killed  off,  by  preparation  of  books  of  moral  science 
suited  to  establish  the  Trinitarian  truth.  Harness  a 


102  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

horse  of  high  spirit  into  your  chaise,  he  travels  with 
alacrity  and  joy.  But  he  would  resent  being  tackled 
into  a  truck ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  set  to  drawing 
the  old  cart  which  passes  for  the  Church,  will  tear  it 
to  pieces.  If  you  would  be  safe,  hitch  a  donkey  into 
your  dray.  Science  a  means,  and  your  establishment 
the  end?  Every  thing  outward  must  serve  the  soul. 
Every  creed  is  an  arrested  development.  We  think 
of  the  Bible  as  a  structure  solid  and  eternal.  It  is  the 
record  of  alteration  without  ceasing,  —  patriarchs  giving 
way  to  judges,  judges  to  kings,  kings  to  priests,  priests 
to  prophets,  and  prophets  to  Jesus  their  head,  and 
Jesus  to  the  Spirit.  Vital  power  sloughs  off  old  form 
ulas.  Some  Northern  churches  had  negro  galleries  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago.  It  was  suggested,  in  one 
case,  to  evacuate  or  remove  the  wooden  box  from 
which,  as  one  said,  the  colored  folk  looked  down  on 
the  congregation  like  crows.  The  fierce  and  almost 
universal  opposition  to  this  it  is  difficult  now  to  con 
ceive.  But  at  length  the  high  enclosure  went ;  and 
not  by  all  the  king's  horses  and  all  the  king's  men 
could  it  be  restored.  So  pass  the  stiffest  ceremonials 
beyond  recovery.  Who  could  be  at  charges  or  shave 
the  head  to  conciliate  bigots,  as  Paul  and  his  compan 
ions  did?  Yet,  such  is  the  superstition  for  Scripture 
examples,  a  friend  says  on  the  strength  of  that  old  in 
stance  he  could  cross  himself  among  the  Catholics. 
Does  then  an  apostle's  act  of  course  indicate  the  law 
of  perfect  conduct?  If  the  Trinitarian  Doxology  be 
sung,  I  can  join  in  the  tune,  but  not  in  the  words. 
When  one  declined  a  true  believer's  asking  for  alms, 
saying,  "  I  am  a  heretic,"  "  Oh,  sir,  your  money  is 


RADICALISM.  103 

orthodox,"  was  the  reply.     Of  the  orthodoxy  of  good 
music  there  is  no  doubt. 

True  Radicalism  is  also  of  a  loving  spirit.  There 
is  a  sour  sort  of  it,  the  fruit  being  still  green ;  but  the 
ripe  and  sweet  variety  we  shall  have  to  adopt.  We 
fix  on  a  creed  as  final,  as  the  farmer  calls  his  choice 
apple  Seek-no-further  j  but  the  new  growth  outstrips 
and  leaves  it  behind.  Progress  is  the  law.  When  the 
Eastern  Railway  was  built,  ample  room  was  left  at 
the  crossings  for  the  cars.  But  forty  bridges  have  to 
be  raised  to  let  the  Pullman  palace  cars  pass  through. 
Narrow  terms  of  Christian  communion  have  at  great 
expense  of  good  feeling  to  be  pulled  down ;  else  the 
Church  becomes  one  of  those  corporations  that  have 
no  soul.  Like  University  graduation,  like  organic 
evolution,  Free  Religion  is  an  unfolding  of  previous 
forms,  and  is  not  that  bolting  from  them  affected  by 
some,  ending  like  the  side  path  I  took  in  the  woods,  — 
in  a  swamp  and  a  squirrel  track.  A  good  man  hu 
morously  expressed  the  development  in  his  case  by 
saying,  "  I  spell  my  God  with  two  #'s,  and  my  devil 
without  a  d"  In  an  old  anti-slavery  Quaker  family  I 
served  at  the  funeral  of  a  young  man  who  had  never 
heard  a  dozen  sermons,  yet  was  a  pattern  of  all  good 
works.  His  wedding-day  had  been  set,  the  bride's 
wedding-dress  made,  the  wedding-house  nearly  done  ; 
yet  he  welcomed  death.  The  Eastern  mists  were  the 
mourning  robes  ;  but  the  bereaved  had  clad  themselves 
in  cheerful  attire.  As  it  pleases  God  the  beautiful 
flowers  should  grow  not  only  in  gardens  and  enclos 
ures,  fenced  from  the  cold  and  the  wind,  but  on  wild 
hill-sides,  along  uncultured  meadows  and  plains,  and 


104  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

up  near  the  snow-line  of  Alpine  peaks,  so,  not  in  any 
revival  hot-house  or  paradise  of  a  sectarian  conventicle, 
the  finest  human  excellence  springs.  Virtue  within 
and  without  the  ritual  must  be  compared.  The  lists 
are  set  in  this  noble  tournament ;  a  fair  field  is  open  ; 
the  Judge  throws  down  his  warder  :  leap,  holy  knights, 
to  the  conflict,  and  God  defend  the  right ! 

Not  what  we  profess,  but  produce,  is  the  test.  Dis 
senters  from  Calvinism  were  told,  Yours  is  a  good 
religion  to  live  by,  but  not  to  die  by.  That  is  all  we 
want.  We  do  not  expect  to  die,  yet  are  willing  the 
case  should  be  settled  by  what  are  called  death-beds. 

We  must  have,  theologians  tell  us,  a  revelation  of 
God ;  as  though  he  were  hid  in  his  works.  Are 
Shakspeare,  Raphael,  Beethoven  so  hid?  Creation  is 
God's  transparency,  not  screen.  Goethe's  earth-spirit 
weaves  the  garment  we  see  Him  by.  This  veiled 
Deity  reminds  one  of  the  coarse  preacher's  figure : 
God  is  like  a  squirrel  in  the  wall ;  he  can  see  you 
though  you  cannot  see  him.  So  says  not  that  man 
of  no  Christian  birth  or  breeding,  the  Hindoo,  Chun- 
der  Sen,  —  a  pearl  of  Orient  piety  welcomed  by  the 
leaders  of  a  dozen  religious  sects,  from  Marti neau  the 
Rationalist  to  Dean  Stanley  of  the  Established  Church. 
The  wisdom  has  been  queried  of  letting  into  our  pul 
pits  this  illuminated  heathen,  whom  Jesus  would  have 
taken  to  his  arms.  Well  if  our  liturgies,  or  prayers 
without  book,  could  touch  the  rapture  of  this  latest  of 
the  Magi  from  the  East ! 

What  a  Radical  is  Nature  !  See  the  plants,  from  a 
mixture  of  sun  and  rain,  start  in  a  thousand  stretches 
of  greenness  to  make  a  garden  of  the  globe,  their 


RADICALISM.  IC>5 

clinging  to  the  root  not  hindering  their  airy  ascent. 
Abide  as  it  will  in  the  ground,  no  dead,  past  for  the 
tree.  It  scatters  in  autumn  the  leaves  it  will  not 
reclaim  in  spring.  What  cares  the  orchard  for  last 
year's  apples  and  pears,  forgotten  in  preparation  of 
the  new  crop  ?  No  merit  made  of  the  heaps  of  twenty 
seasons  falling  ruddy  and  yellow  from  the  boughs  ;  no 
expectation  of  being  saved  by  the  old  works,  but  only 
by  grace  of  the  new  :  the  yield  on  the  branches  a 
transformation  of  the  vital  juice  from  beneath  the  soil. 
What  a  Conservative  that  barren  fig-tree,  occupying 
the  room  of  its  betters  !  But  blasting  or  burning  is  the 
doom  of  what  does  not  bear. 

Development  not  allowed,  revolt,  revolution,  will 
come.  The  workman's  proverb,  "  Steady  by  jerks," 
is  illustrated  by  how  many  a  crisis  in  the  world. 
Causes,  says  Bjornson,  have  to  be  repeated  many 
times  ere  the  explosion  we  call  an  effect.  Witness 
the  downfall  of  France  from  its  long  diet,  not  of  duty, 
but  of  glory.  Grown-up  pre-occupants  insist  we 
shall  act  on  their  conscience  and  will.  We  cannot 
abide  our  own  children  contradicting  us,  as,  with  a 
mite  of  spirit,  they  will.  Things  degenerate  till,  as 
Goethe  says,  the  gods  will  not  recognize  the  sire's 
features  in  the  faces  of  the  sons.  But  the  true  Con 
servative  will  thank  Goth  or  German  who  restores  the 
type  of  a  religion  run  down. 

As  all  conception  is  covered,  and  none  can  tell  just 
where  Anti-Slavery,  Woman's  Rights,  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  Etherization,  Steam,  or  the  Telegraph, 
began,  it  is  hard  to  trace  the  genesis  of  Radicalism. 
Its  germ,  dot  or  double-dot,  is  as  obscure  as  that  origin 


IO6  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  man  which  mortgages  another  century  for  its  de 
cision.  As  the  new  planet  may  have  several  simulta 
neous  discoverers,  so  with  the  dawn  of  an  idea.  Real 
originators  resign  in  favor  of  the  Spirit.  Always  there 
is  engineer  and  brakeman  :  always  driving-wheel  of 
the  thinker,  the  safest  of  men  ;  the  danger  being  from 
some  stone  of  ultra-conservatism  on  the  track. 

But  what  occasion,  in  the  little  band  of  Liberal  Chris 
tians,  had  any  but  to  keep  the  peace,  instead  of  show 
ing  teeth  to  bite  their  cherry  in  two?  Paul  blames 
Peter  for  conforming.  Yet  in  a  signal  instance  how 
Paul  himself  conformed  !  Why  could  not  we  conform  ? 

The  first  radical  motive  was  the  law  of  truth.  When, 
six  years  ago,  the  churches  were  invited  to  send  to  the 
first  Unitarian  Convention,  in  New  York,  delegates 
authorized  to  represent  their  convictions,  and  pledged 
to  pay  great  respect  to  the  decisions  of  that  body,  we 
protested  against  such  putting  of  personal  and  congre 
gational  freedom  under  threat.  It  seemed  insincere  to 
confound  diverse  opinions  in  the  one  stripe,  which 
chosen  messengers  might  hold  out  for  a  banner.  We 
were  told,  You  will  stand  alone  and  wear  motley. 
W^e  said,  Better  Joseph's  coat  of  many  colors  than 
the  prison-uniform.  We  prefer  citizens'  or  soldiers' 
to  policemen's  dress.  An  officer  of  the  steamer  Lex 
ington,  escaping  on  a  cotton-bale,  told  the  court  when 
the  fire  covered  the  deck  he  thought  it  a  case.  So  did 
we,  when  a  synod  appeared  as  the  precipitate  from 
the  solution  of  independent  thought.  It  was  time  to 
be  a  martyr  or  witness-bearer. 

But  another  motive  was  the  law  of  faith.  We 
wanted  to  believe.  We  were  accused  of  weakening 


RADICALISM. 


the  ranks.  But  the  fellowship  of  honest  dissent  antic 
ipates  wider  sympathies,  and  enlarges  the  Church. 
When  once,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  the  constables  tried  to 
close  the  door  against  the  crowd,  the  president  cried 
out,  Faneuil  Hall  is  open  !  However,  for  convenient 
concert,  one  end  of  Liberal  Christianity  might  be  shut. 
we  meant  the  other  end  should  swing  ;  and,  at  what 
ever  cost  of  house-warming,  to  keep  open  doors. 
Doubtless  the  articles  assumed  made  a  trig  marching 
costume.  The  reports  say  that  the  number  of  believ 
ers  and  churches  has  been  multiplied  by  the  platform 
and  working  plans  of  leaders  so  busy  and  brave.  But 
what  census  shall  give,  beside  the  poll,  the  weight  of 
those  saved  by  the  defended  rights  of  reason  !  How 
serious  the  secession,  but  for  the  victory  of  thinker 
over  priest  !  Would  not  our  ship  have  been  dis 
masted,  or  unmanned  and  abandoned,  or,  amid  waves 
of  controversy,  lacked  seamanship  to  reach  port,  but 
for  that  modifying  of  the  first  stringency,  which  the 
new  Protestants  compelled?  The  rebels  against  hu 
man  leadership  did  good  service  ;  the  appellants  to  the 
higher  law  promoted  justice  ;  the  heretics  preserved 
unity,  and  schismatics  kept  the  faith. 

A  third  motive  was  the  law  of  growth,  erroneously 
supposed  to  come  from  hushing  up  differences.  Sti 
fling  private  judgment  may  yield  mechanical  increase. 
A  thoughtless  huddling  together  in  the  rabbit-warrens 
of  conformity  makes  the  denominational  count  large 
and  easy.  Self-interest  and  gross  social  instinct  furnish 
a  conglomerate  or  pudding-stone  of  assent.  But  the 
articulation  of  limbs  or  branching  of  a  tree  figures 
vital  spread.  Largeness  is  not  greatness.  An  artist 


IO8  RADICAL     PROBLEMS. 

was  asked  what  should  be  the  proper  price  of  a  certain 
picture  measuring  six  by  nine,  —  the  amount  of  putty 
being  the  standard,  not  the  painter's  art.  It  is  said  all 
the  boughs  brought  together  would  make  a  uniform 
bole  ;  but  where  then  the  green  expanse,  the  lungs  of 
leaves,  the  sap,  blossom,  and  fruit?  The  tree  were 
timber,  without  axe  or  saw  ;  and  any  sect  that  forbids 
outgrowth  is  a  stick.  Liberty  reproached  as  dissolv 
ing  ties?  It  alone  knits  them. 

Mark  now  some  illustrations.  Cutting  the  old  He 
braism  to  graft  in  the  Gentiles  was  as  painful  as  to 
King  George  the  Colonial  Declaration.  But  it  was 
good  for  Jewish  as  for  English  blood.  Luther's  attack 
on  the  Romish  corruptions  saved  Rome,  and  gave  the 
papacy  a  new  lease,  as  uncapping  the  central  fire  keeps 
the  earth  from  splitting ;  beside  that  the  volcanic  up 
heaval  gathers  the  vapor  into  springs,  laces  the  valley 
with  streams,  slopes  the  rocks  to  grind  into  intervals, 
and  produces  corn  and  wheat  below,  to  laugh  to  the 
wind-flowers  and  nodding  vines  above.  Another  sort 
of  rending  makes  the  grandeur  of  history.  Was 
Methodism  in  England  the  ruin  of  religion,  or  its  ex 
tension  into  new  realms?  Did  Puritanism,  driven  from 
home  or  fleeing  from  the  halter,  waste  one  drop  from 
the  vials  that  hold  the  tears  of  the  saints?  Compare 
its  commonwealth  with  the  establishment  that  fears 
it  can  no  longer  wring  revenue  of  royalty  from  the 
poor,  but  must  stand  on  a  footing  with  other  orders, 
or  come  to  the  ground  !  Did  our  doctrinal  Fathers, 
forsaking  Pilgrim  Orthodoxy,  destroy  Congregational 
ism?  These  cases  history  vindicates.  But,  one  radi 
cal  step  more,  we  are  among  the  breakers  ;  and  Put 


RADICALISM. 


I09 


about  ship  !  is  the  cry.  Hard  aport !  sang  the  captain 
from  the  upper  deck  to  the  man  at  the  wheel,  as  he 
steered  in  the  fog,  upon  Cape  Race,  so  near  I  saw  the 
brown  rocks  bare  with  each  retiring  wave.  In  our 
theological  ship,  is  the  Free-thinker,  advising  a  new 
course,  going  to  cast  us  away?  What  pilot  within 
hail  but  the  candid  student,  who  keeps  abreast  with 
science  and  does  not  stay  behind  to  be  petrified  at  any 
Salt  Lake  with  Mormon  leader  or  Mistress  Lot?  Our 
guides  with  their  verbal  basis  broke  the  harmony  they 
would  bind.  With  but  a  touch,  light  as  that  at  which 
the  Touch-me-not  bursts,  scores  of  clergy  and  others 
met  in  private  rooms,  in  Boston,  to  consult  lest  the 
ecclesiastical  republic  might  receive  harm.  The  press 
launched  gibes  at  the  improperly  advertised  movement 
as  still-born.  But  it  was  a  new  and  living  generation, 
which  the  newspaper  —  sometimes  generous,  but  ser 
vant  too  much,  not  of  man,  but  of  the  majority  — 
has  come  to  respect.  We  always  repent  of  going  with 
the  multitude.  People  are  sorry  for  their  senseless 
shouts  and  stupid  throwing-up  of  caps.  The  denounc 
ers  become  the  accepters  of  ideas.  Their  assertors  and 
martyrs  behold  the  scoffer  creeping  into  their  ranks, 
and  pretending  he  was  always  there. 

"The  astonished  Muse  finds  thousands  at  her  side." 

The  servile  print  grows  polite,  and  begs  to  be  reporter 
of  that  it  had  visited  as  abortionist.  It  is  the  old  story. 
What  to-day  crucifies,  to-morrow  crowns.  That  first 
meeting,  to  which  the  parlors  wTere  open  for  fair  play, 
became  parent  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  and 
the  Radical  Club.  In  their  formation  some  of  the 


110  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Radicals  took  no  part,  having  no  talent  nor  relish  for 
machinery  to  act  on  the  popular  mind,  deprecating  a 
new  sect,  or  dreading  a  hard  concrete  of  their  precious 
ideas.  They  loved  free  thought  as  an  element,  re 
sented  the  appearance  of  a  curb,  coveted  no  personal 
publicity,  and  would  not  put  their  principles  in  any 
conventional  gear.  Religion  is  not  only  an  institution, 
it  is  an  inspiration  ;  and,  in  the  necessary  division  of 
labor,  some  serve  best  where  the  electricity  is  gener 
ated,  leaving  others  to  apply  it  to  the  fine  or  useful  arts. 
Radical  doctrine  is  needed  less  as  a  weapon  or  tool 
than  a  leaven  in  the  yet  heavy  lump  of  this  world's 
dough. 

But  what  is  the  Radical  position?  It  is  against  any 
final  wording.  Unitarians  still  hold  that  in  the  Bible, 
the  New  Testament  as  supplement  of  the  Old,  the  Di 
vine  mind  is  fully  expressed,  though  they  quote  Rob 
inson  that  "  more  light  is  to  break  out  of  God's  Word." 
But  we  say  there  is  more  Word !  As  a  sailing-master 
gives  new  directions  every  day,  we  must  have  fresh 
orders  from  the  Navigator  of  our  humanity,  at  each 
degree  of  the  voyage.  The  old  chart  alone  will  not 
suffice.  Can  we  find  all  we  need,  every  coast  and 
island  laid  down,  on  the  sacred  map?  What  specific 
rules  does  the  volume  hold  for  Liberty,  Republican 
ism,  Temperance,  Prohibition,  Woman's  Rights,  Free 
Trade  or  Protection,  War  and  Peace,  Labor  and  Cap 
ital,  Poverty  and  Wealth?  For  every  live  question 
we  do  and  must  take  counsel  of  the  Spirit,  as  did  Isaac 
or  David,  Noah  or  Lot.  Which  is  the  blasphemy,  — 
to  find  their  instructions  insufficient,  or  to  declare  there 
are  none  for  us?  "Honor  the  king,"  says  Peter. 


RADICALISM.  Ill 

What  king  do  we  honor?  God  is  no  linguist.  He 
does  not  talk  Syriac  or  Greek.  At  Pentecost,  he  was 
understood  in  every  tongue  because  he  used  none,  and 
no  translation  was  needed  of  his  speech.  You  give 
your  dog  the  meat  you  have  made  him  speak  for,  ris 
ing  on  his  legs.  In  the  heavenly  air  our  food  is  hung 
high  for  us  to  aspire. 

The  Radical  position  is  next  against  individual 
authority.  Truth  is  God's  note,  needing  no  indorser. 
Jesus  its  authority?  It  is  his.  Inspiration  is  not  its 
warrant,  but  effect  Of  all  eloquence  of  pen  or  tongue 
it  is  cause.  Christ's  impersonation  of  it  was  his  power. 
But  it  was  not  exhausted  in  him,  more  than  the  atmos 
phere  in  one  wind  instrument.  If  in  Scripture,  the 
splendid  score  of  the  old  masters,  we  read  aught  that 
does  not  chime  with  the  string  under  God's  finger 
in  our  breast,  sweet  as  it  sounded  once,  it  is  discord 
now.  Corrupt  birth,  arbitrary  choice,  bloody  atone 
ment,  hopeless  woe,  —  is  it  between  the  sacred  lids? 
It  grates  on  me  no  less,  and  I  will  reject  it  as  quick 
as  the  last  crudeness  vented  with  impunity  in  this  rash- 
speaking  day.  In  any  creature,  son  of  God  or  son  of 
man,  no  authority  but  the  response  of  the  spirit  that 
rises  to  the  Spirit  that  comes. 

The  Radical  protest  is,  once  more,  against  any  con 
tradiction  of  science.  To  the  constitution  of  Nature 
your  religion  must  give  way.  This  has  got  through 
the  hair  of  our  head  in  regard  to  Galileo,  who,  once 
alone  against  the  Church,  now  has  a  unanimous  vote. 
Lyell  and  Darwin  may  get  such  a  verdict  some  day. 
To  give  man  or  the  world  a  date  of  but  six  thousand 
years  would,  but  for  theologic  imperception,  appear 


112  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

as  absurd  as  to  make  the  sun  a  satellite  of  the  earth. 
The  doctors  tell  us,  never  was  a  man  like  RulofT  for 
thickness  of  skull.  Suitable  callipers  might  match  it 
in  many  an  ecclesiastic  head.  Sydney  Smith  told  the 
dignitaries  they  had  but  to  put  their  heads  together  to 
make  the  new  wooden  pavement  for  St.  Paul's.  The 
men,  be  they  able  as  Agassiz,  who  assert,  will  have 
to  scout  a  creation  of  man  apart  from  other  tribes. 
Religion  above  science  is  the  eagle  scorning  the  fowler, 
in  the  sky  ;  religion  against  science  is  the  earthen  pot 
clashing  with  the  iron  in  the  stream. 

But  has  Radicalism  no  principles?  Yes:  it  denies 
to  affirm,  clears  the  way  to  travel,  vetoes  less  than  it 
signs,  and  tears  down  but  to  build.  Its  affirmation  is, 
Spirit  takes  in  all.  My  friend  says,  The  Spirit  is  born 
of  Christianity.  I  answer,  Christianity  of  the  Spirit. 
He  says,  Spirit  is  an  abstraction.  I  say,  A  reality. 
He  says,  The  gospel  covers  the  ground.  I  reply,  Nei 
ther  actual  nor  ideal.  I  stand  within  the  Christian 
lines,  the  lowest  private  in  those  ranks.  But  I  look 
out  to  the  origin  and  end  of  the  march.  There  are 
greater  words  than  Christian,  —  the  Divine  Humanity, 
the  image  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 

The  second  principle  is,  forward  character.  Respect 
the  past,  we  are  told.  Yes,  and  the  present  too  !  The 
past  is  no  bed  to  lie  down  on.  Ancestral  achieve 
ments  are  abused  for  a  lounge  and  easy-chair.  Fore 
going  legislation  had  its  place  ;  but,  in  this  parliament 
of  the  world,  what  is  the  motion  in  order  now  ?  Lay 
the  next  course.  Better  not  have  begun  than  stop. 
To  bless  is  not  to  bolt,  but  tug  at  the  load  that  tries 
our  united  strength.  Not  revolution,  but  evolution,  is 


RADICALISM.  113 

benediction.       Would    that   lesson    were    learned    in 
France  ! 

The  third  Radical  principle  is  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Church.  Never  was  falser  maxim  than  that  religion  is 
a  thing  between  a  man  and  his  Maker.  It  is  a  bond 
betwixt  men,  as  well  as  with  God.  Jesus  prescribed 
no  form  ;  and  a  generation  passed  without  any  binding 
outward  order.  The  Church,  like  the  world,  is  over- 
governed  by  base  love  of  power.  When  one  tries  to 
rule  me,  I  have  a  vision  of  thrones  on  which  his  pro 
genitor  was  king  or  queen.  Tyranny  is  the  heritage 
of  every  sect.  But  the  check  of  that  great  Italian 
water-wheel  is  felt  in  every  denominational  cog.  The 
Church  will  survive,  because  it  does  not  consist  in  any 
mode  of  discipline,  but  sympathy  through  every  vary 
ing  statement  and  style.  Uniformity  is  not  unity,  which 
liberty  and  law  constitute,  and  law  without  liberty  pre 
vents.  Centralization,  with  dominant  will,  passes 
before  the  dawn  of  local  privilege  with  universal  light. 
Architecture  is  one  shadow  of  this  on  the  dial.  The 
cathedral,  that  overshadowed  the  town  and  nestled  the 
population  around  its  walls,  as  the  fountain  draws  them 
in  a  Tyrolese  village,  dwindles.  Though  New  York 
and  Boston  put  up  large  edifices,  these  are  but  on  a 
reduced  scale,  copies  in  pale  ink  of  the  ancient  mag 
nificence.  No  more  structures  like  St.  Peter's  and 
Strasbourg,  and  the  Duomo  at  Milan,  long  for  such  as 
Ruskin  may  !  Cologne,  since  most  of  us  were  born, 
remains,  save  on  paper,  unfinished,  with  some  builder's 
crane  on  its  tower  for  a  sign.  Palaces  of  shingles  our 
bishops  have  to  put  up  with.  What  is  the  temple  to 
the  traveller's  road?  Theatres  and  railway-stations, 

8 


114  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

warehouse-blocks,  dwellings  of  granite  and  marble, 
costly  stones,  gray  and  ruddy,  in  parks  and  reservoirs, 
outshine  the  modest  audience-rooms  mostly  reared  for 
Christian  assemblies.  What  meeting-house  can  vie 
with  river  or  ocean-steamer,  or  the  hotels  where  we 
eat  and  sleep?  David  might  repeat  his  complaint  to 
Nathan :  "  I  dwell  in  an  house  of  cedar,  but  the  ark 
of  God  dwelleth  within  curtains."  Is  it  all  a  mark  of 
decay?  Rather  that,  in  time  to  come,  less  ritual  and 
more  life  shall  compose  the  Church.  Like  its  Head,  it 
will  triumph  by  going  away.  It  will  become  Christian 
society.  It  will  not,  like  the  papacy,  absorb,  but  be 
absorbed  in  the  commonwealth.  Conference  and  com 
munion  will  take  the  place  of  throngs,  excited  or 
amused  by  some  fine  organ  or  famous  voice.  What 
ever  reaction  entice  the  unthinking  multitude  to  popish 
mimicry  for  a  while,  conversation  will  come,  instead 
of  that  gallop  of  words  called  eloquence.  But  the 
Church  will  survive.  Without  her  the  reformer,  who 
reproves  her  backwardness,  would  not  have  been. 
From  the  altar,  where  she  too  much  kept  the  coals  to 
warm  her  own  hands,  he  has  seized  the  brands  to  kin 
dle  every  holy  fire.  Her  insulter  may  behold  his  own 
blood  in  five  generations  of  her  priests. 

But  she  is  not  to  stay  a  place  for  ceremony,  empty 
and  apart  save  once  a  week.  Household  affection, 
loyal  friendship,  honesty  in  affairs,  justice  to  the 
laborer,  fellowship  with  the  poor,  and  example  of 
temperance  for  a  law,  are  the  transformation  wherein 
Zion's  latter-day  glory  shall  appear.  From  her  Lit 
urgy  shall  not  the  name,  with  the  fact,  of  slavery  drop  ? 
No  grain  of  humanity  can  she  leave  out.  Those  dig- 


RADICALISM.  115 

gers  in  the  trench,  along  the  dark  wet  tunnel,  amid 
flaring  lamps,  her  light  must  include.  Employe's, 
conductors,  switch-men,  brake-men,  signal-men,  ticket- 
sellers,  draw-tenders,  machinists,  ought,  as  much  as 
sailors,  to  have  public  sympathy,  vacations  from  their 
task,  and  a  Bethel  of  their  own.  How  will  their  lack 
of  science,  religion,  and  sound  morals,  react  on  us ! 
Their  eyes  were  wet  when  they  were  told,  nothing  but 
antique  phrase  kept  their  coming,  with  car  and  engine, 
as  much  as  the  tents  of  the  patriarchs  and  ships  and 
camels,  into  our  prayers.  This  will  be  communion, 
and  no  longer  protest. 

Radicalism  means  room.  The  old  barns  in  the 
country  were  not  built  large  enough  to  let  the  modern 
breed  of  horses  in  ;  and  my  friend  visiting  me  had  to 
feed  his  team  out  of  doors.  The  old  churches  were 
not  built  big  enough  to  let  the  new  men  in.  There  is 
space  for  the  body  to  sit  down  or  lie  prostrate,  but  not 
for  the  soul  to  stand  up.  The  science,  scholarship, 
culture,  character,  cannot  be  accommodated  in  the 
temple.  I  remember  how  the  animals,  that  drew  the 
families  to  church,  used  to  graze  on  the  juicy  herbs 
round  the  sheds ;  and  it  still  seems  to  me  a  chaffy 
nutriment  parent  and  child  tried  to  masticate  within. 
Large-hearted,  high-minded  men  and  women,  with 
their  towering  heads,  have  yet  to  resort  to  fodder  in 
the  field,  not  being  able  to  get  at  the  hay  on  the  mow. 
What  food  we  furnish  is  the  test.  What  is  their  com 
missariat?  asked  General  Scott,  when  told  the  rebels 
were  marching  to  Washington.  Whether  we  touch 
the  shadows  of  bread  and  wine  in  the  supper  or  not, 
we  must  be  communicant  with  God,  to  supply  men. 


Il6  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

We  flatter,  brace,  and  backen  ourselves  on  compliment, 
with  mutual  quotation  and  commendation,  keeping  a 
market  of  praise  and  running  an  exchange  of  vanity, 
instead  of  treating  one  another,  with  verity  and  right. 

For  Radicalism  one  virtue  we  may  claim,  sincerity. 
These  men  are  not  pretenders.  To  honesty  they  add 
ability,  and  often  aptness  to  teach,  which  can  ill  be 
spared  by  the  Church.  We  may  have  an  equal  won 
der  at  what  the  pulpit  welcomes,  and  what  it  excludes. 
We  can  think  of  one  with  a  genius  for  piety  like  that 
of  the  Hebrew  David,  whose  line  he  stands  in,  and  a 
voice  of  electric  speech,  yet  under  the  ban  because 
miracle  is  to  him  mythology,  and  he  cannot  believe  a 
troop  of  angels  sang  over  Bethlehem.  He  writes  a 
book  of  "  American  Religion,"  humorously  by  a  critic 
called  an  asteroid  in  comparison  with  the  "  Ten 
Great  Religions "  from  another  hand,  which  are  re 
lated  to  it  rather  as  mammoth  and  mastodon  are  to 
man.  Another,  under  the  ecclesiastic  taboo,  is  an 
author,  of  national  fame,  soldier  and  leader  of  a  black 
regiment  in  the  civil  war,  advocate  of  every  philanthro 
pic  reform,  treating  every  question  with  alarming  can 
dor  and  wit.  A  third,  a  master  of  every  liberal  art,  poet 
and  philosopher,  on  all  subjects  a  catholic,  comprehen 
sive,  unpartisan  judge,  may  be  found  like  Levi,  sitting 
at  the  receipt  of  custom.  A  fourth,  too  true  to  trim, 
and  as  unable  to  purchase  place  with  sacrificing  a 
grain  of  frankness  as  an  old  martyr  with  a  pinch  of 
frankincense  in  the  fire  of  Jupiter,  shall  be  content  to 
read  the  proofs  when  he  might  furnish  better  matter 
for  the  press.  But  the  inward  panorama  is  lighted 
with  a  score  of  such  in  the  social  circle,  respected  by 


RADICALISM.  11^ 

no  organized  power,  yet  drawing  looks  of  reverence 
and  love.  Two  appear  in  singular  contrast :  one  ac 
cepting  Jesus,  and  rejecting  Christ ;  the  other  a  devotee 
of  Christianity,  and  indicting  its  reputed  author.  The 
free  thinker,  of  however  different  shade,  is  scared  with 
being  told  he  will  be  classed  with  them  ;  as  if  he  were 
looking  after  his  classification,  not  the  truth. 

But  shall  we  allow  such  men  to  be  heard,  or  put 
them  down?  If  Jesus  were  the  man  I  take  him  for, 
he  would  permit  the  sharpest  interrogation  of  his 
claims.  I  honor  my  Master  too  much  to  defend 
him  with  any  ostracism.  He  that  with  equal  patience 
and  plainness  confronted  hypocrites,  and  wanted 
Thomas  the  sceptic  to  put  his  hand  into  the  wound, 
is  no  example  for  muzzling  inquiry,  or  thrusting  it  from 
our  side.  The  empire  which  professed  to  be  feace, 
with  its  censorship  of  the  pen,  ended  in  war ;  and  the 
tongue  we  bridle  in  others  we  shall  ourselves  be  run 
away  with.  Do  we  give  dignity  to  the  pulpit  by  cov 
ering  it  with  restrictions  removed  from  the  press  ?  It 
is  unsound  flesh  that  shrinks  from  being  touched. 
There  is  something  rotten  in  the  Denmark  that  fears. 
Courage  to  pursue  every  study,  with  hospitality  to  the 
results  of  investigation,  is  the  flag  of  faith.  Until  it 
appears  that  church-men  or  creed-men  make  the  best 
men,  are  more  gracious  neighbors,  live  by  a  higher 
law  than  legality,  or  bring  up  their  children  to  be 
more  modest  and  respectful  than  those  of  other  par 
ents,  we  may  believe  it  possible  still,  as  with  Saul,  to 
be  bred  after  the  most  straitest  sect  of  our  religion  a 
Pharisee.  While  so  many  use  form  as  a  Sunday 
cushion  for  their  mind,  or  put  dogma  instead  of  fidelity 


Il8  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

into  contracts,  and  the  old  rule  lasts  of  knowing  a  man 
by  his  fruits,  let  us  give  Liberal  and  Radical  a  fair 
chance  at  the  tribunal  of  worth.  We  cannot  let  the 
candidates  be  umpires  too ;  but,  as  we  choose  arbitra 
tors  of  national  claims,  leave  it  to  mankind,  God's  rep 
resentative,  to  judge  of  all  men.  The  verdict  at  last 
is  just. 


V. 

THEISM. 

IT  is  a  fact,  meriting  reflection,  that  the  word  which 
has  been  most  hateful  to  religious  people  is  Deism, 
or  a  belief  in  God,  so  direct  through  his  instant  care 
as  to  make  small  account  of  special  revelation.  Was 
it  from  a  kindly  wish  not  to  irritate  this  sore  of  old 
prejudice,  that  by  the  name  Theism,  of  equivalent 
sense,  the  same  sentiment  returning  after  generations 
is  now  baptized  ?  Who  was,  of  theists,  the  chief  but 
Jesus  ?  Who  but  Christians  should  be  deists  above  all 
believers  beside  ?  That  a  synonym  for  infidelity  should 
be  found  in  either  term  may  imply  in  those  who  gave 
or  bore  it  some  share  of  a  common  fault.  If  one 
party  underrated  the  written  gospel,  the  other  too 
much  disparaged  the  universal  light.  It  is  possible  to 
blaspheme  not  only  a  visible  rite,  but  the  interior  soul, 
that  temple  without  which  is  no  sanctity  in  all  the 
gold  of  prophetic  wonders  and  words.  Shall  we 
brand  as  a  sceptic  the  man  who  wishes  no  particular 
mediator,  he  confides  in  his  own  Author  so  immediately 
and  much  ?  For  what  comes  any  seer  but  to  revive 
the  sense  of  Deity,  and  work  the  miracle  of  resurrection 
on  no  dead  body,  but  our  buried  faith  in  that  Being  so 


I2O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

indwelling  and  surrounding,  nothing  and  nobody  can 
come  betwixt  him  and  us  —  as  the  old  story  tells  us  none 
did  betwixt  Enoch  and  him  ?  We  hear  of  atheists. 
But  atheism  is  impossible.  Without  God,  man  were 
not.  There  are  only  atheistic  theories  which  we 
touch,  by  summoning  the  witnesses. 

The  first  is  Nature,  by  which  we  mean  a  certain 
whole,  or  unity.  The  world  is  not  all  in  pieces,  but 
all  together.  For  convenience,  we  talk  of  this  thing 
or  that  as  distinct ;  but  separate  or  separable  nothing 
is.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  thing,  but  every  thing 
is  part  of  something  and  of  every  thing  else.  This 
relatedness  makes  all  one,  hard  as  it  is  to  define  the 
relationship.  We  are  taught  in  childhood  boundaries 
on  maps,  and  so  fix  in  mind  an  artificial  notion  of 
dividing-lines  which  God  never  made. 

"  Line  in  Nature  is  not  found." 

There  are  no  exactly  measurable  degrees  of  space  or 
time,  latitude  or  longitude.  We  name  for  practical 
purposes  gross  quantities  which  do  not  square  with 
the  fineness  of  the  facts.  But  in  their  faith  or  unfaith 
men  are  fooled  with  words.  One  says,  If  the  truth 
should  turn  out  there  is  no  God,  we  must  abide  man 
fully  the  result.  But  God  is  the  Truth  you  imagine 
requiring  you  to  deny  him.  He  is  the  Truth  you  set 
out  from,  as  he  is  that  you  reach.  God  and  Truth  are 
both  dictionary  words.  What  right  to  define  them 
differently,  or  make  Trutlrthe  larger  of  the  two?  The 
atheist  says,  No  God  distinct  from  Nature.  I  answer, 
No  Nature  distinct  from  God.  What  beside  Deity  is 
this  entire  and  infinite  simplicity  we  mean  when  Na- 


THEISM.  121 

ture  is  pronounced  ?  It  is  alive.  A  dead  unity  we  can 
not  conceive.  Death  is  dissolution  into  disconnected 
particles  or  parts.  But,  as  no  such  absolute  discon 
nection  can  be,  death  but  seems,  and  is  not.  You  say 
matter,  I  spirit ;  you,  that  spirit  is  finer  matter  ;  I,  that 
matter  is  coarser  spirit.  It  remains  for  us  both  to  find 
what  substance  is,  since  two  substances  cannot  coexist. 
That  all  phenomena  blend  in  unity  is  the  point  science 
arrives  at  more  clearly  every  day. 

"The  world  's  mine  oyster 
Which  with  knife  I  '11  open ;  " 

but  the  point  of  cleavage  neither  Positivist  nor  Meta 
physician  finds.  In  Nature's  armor  is  no  joint  a  spear 
can  pierce.  Is  God  supernatural  ?  Then  he  is  lim 
ited  ;  for  here  is  something  called  Nature  no  eyes  ever 
saw  the  end  of,  and  no  terms  of  human  conception 
can  exhaust,  from  which  ht  is  cleaned  out  and  con 
fined  to  quarters,  like  a  monk  in  a  convent,  nun  in 
a  cloister,  or  student  ordered  not  to  go  ofF  the  college- 
grounds.  Shall  we  tell  him,  as  we  do  a  child,  to 
make  himself  small,  or  lie  on  his  own  side?  "  God  is 
a  definite  idea,"  said  that  great  scholar  and  masterly 
writer,  Andrews  Norton,  in  reply  to  the  supposed 
pantheism  of  Schleiermacher  represented  by  George 
Ripley.  But,  open  the  box  of  your  logic,  he  has  es 
caped  ;  as  well  set  a  trap  for  the  light.  "  Lo  !  God  is 
here,"  we  sing  in  the  temple  ;  and  many  think  of  him 
as  an  unseen  priest  haunting  the  church,  or  huge  an 
chorite,  like  Simon  the  pillar  saint.  Yet,  outside  at 
the  corner  of  the  village  meeting-house,  or  on  deck 
when  the  Sunday  praise  gushed  through  the  cabin- 


122  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

windows  with  organ  accompaniment  of  the  winds  and 
waves,  I  have  worshipped  him  as  devoutly  as  any  that 
sat  and  sang  within.  My  friend,  who  went  with  me 
to  the  mighty  sea-beat  rocks,  whistled  some  light  tune. 
I  could  no  more  have  done  it  than  in  the  cathedral- 
choir,  where,  in  Dresden  as  in  Boston,  I  heard  the 
operatic  airs  intrude. 

God  is  held  holy  and  apart:  that  is  finite.  He 
is  holy  in  the  sense  of  wholeness  and  health.  The 
loss  of  wholeness,  any  nerve  or  organ  acting  on 
its  own  account  and  setting  up  for  itself,  is  disease. 
All  secession  is  sickness  in  the  body  politic  or  animal 
frame.  When  one  said  Beauty  of  Holiness  in  a  plea 
for  art  and  the  art-museum,  a  clergyman  replied,  Yes, 
but  Holiness  of  Beauty  we  cannot  say.  Indeed,  will 
not  the  equation  work  both  ways  ?  Gross  notion  of 
Beauty  in  which  it  will  not !  Handsome  to  the  eye 
of  flesh,  but  beautiful  no  impure  thing  or  person  can 
be.  David  saw  the  omnipresence  forcing  him  to  feel, 
if  there  were  any  bed  in  hell  he  could  lie  down  on 
without  God  for  his  fellow,  his  adoration  and  its  object 
were  gone  ;  and  Adam's  fancy,  that  he  could  hide  from 
the  Lord  among  the  trees  of  the  garden,  showed  the 
short-coming  of  his  apprehension,  which  made  the 
Divinity  but  a  larger  man.  The  Infinite  cannot  suffer  ; 
and  his  necessary  blessedness  is  proof  that  my  sin, 
pain,  compunction,  is  no  solid,  but  surface,  —  a  shadow 
not,  as  theologians  so  monstrously  describe,  to  last  for 
ever,  but  pass  away,  having  served  the  ends  for  which 
it  was  sent.  We  err,  do  wrong,  answer  for  it,  and  are  edu 
cated  by  it.  Our  iniquity  becomes  our  grim  minister, 
our  folly  a  glorious  benefactor.  But  we  can  do  noth- 


THEISM.  123 

ing  against  the  will  of  God  ;  for  independent  wills 
were  breaks  in  Nature,  with  which  the  sublime  totality 
we  call  Spirit  were  not.  The  doctrine  of  convertible 
species  absolves  itself  of  atheism,  which  lies  rather  in 
the  opposite  view  of  faults  and  blank  intervals  in  the 
world.  In  the  gaps  no  God  could  be ;  and  if  there  be 
aught  where  he  is  not,  he  is  not  at  all. 

The  next  witness  is  Instinct,  —  a  desire  or  direction 
animating  Nature  to  suggest  the  same  living  unity  at 
heart  as  in  every  point.  This  principle  is  identical,  in 
however  diverse  creatures  or  things.  The  ant  I  saw 
dragging  a  grain  of  sand,  as  important  to  its  hill  as  the 
Column  Vendome  to  Paris,  and  his  brother  pulling 
along  over  the  gravel  the  carcass  of  a  blue-winged 
moth  ;  the  bee  in  his  hive  or  flower,  or  on  a  bee-line 
between  ;  the  toad  or  turtle  basking  in  the  sun  on  a 
rock  ;  the  bird  and  butterfly  ;  the  dog  and  deer ;  the 
fish  and  fox  ;  man  and  woman,  —  all  have  this  common 
quality  we  call  Instinct.  The  little  one  that  runs  to 
me  with  a  smile  and  kiss  before  it  can  speak,  and  the 
dumb  beast  that  licks  my  hand  or  rubs  its  fur  on  my 
foot,  are  acting  from  the  same  impulse  and  doing  the 
same  thing.  On  one  parallel  child  or  animal  pushes 
or  runs.  I  cannot  distinguish  between  the  heifer's 
horns  and  the  baby's  doubled-up  fists.  Does  this  prop 
erty  stop  with  what  we  call  sensitive  existence  ?  When 
we  speak  of  somebody's  monkey-tricks ;  when  a  man 
is  called  a  snake  in  the  grass  or  a  bear,  or  one  woman 
is  called  a  lioness  and  another  a  cat,  and  we  are  told 
to  beware  of  their  teeth  and  claws,  for  they  scratch 
and  bite  with  words,  —  we  feel  a  disgust  at  carrying 
humanity  so  low.  But  we  must  take  it  lower  still. 


124  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Must  I  not  feel  that  the  plant,  creeping  toward  the 
light,  is  a  type  of  my  groping  my  way  faster,  but  with 
less  certainty  of  direction,  out  of  the  same  cellar  ?  The 
roots  spreading  after  water  under  ground,  that  have 
been  known  to  pierce  through  the  decaying  wood  of  a 
conduit  for  a  drink,  imitate  my  seeking  in  a  thirsty 
land  for  a  finer  river.  Plants  that  shrink  from  touch 
are  prefigurations  of  the  nervous  system,  and  mimic 
the  maidens  withdrawing  their  hands  from  a  too  bold 
or  eager  grasp.  The  fertilizing  pollen  shows  vegetable 
sex.  For  the  mutual  attractions  of  human  beings  and 
chemical  atoms  we  use  the  same  word,  affinity,  —  as  in 
Goethe's  wondrous  story  of  "  Elective  Affinities,"  and 
Miss  Shepherd's  of  "  Counterparts,"  and  a  whole  class 
of  literature  back  to  Plato's  Ideas.  The  electric  fluid 
loves  iron  so  that  it  will  run  on  a  wire  beneath  the  bot 
tom  of  the  deep  :  Jesus  resembles  to  it  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man ;  and  some  scientists  suspect  it  to  be 
the  element  of  thought.  No  brain  without  phosphorus, 
says  the  physicist ;  and  advises  the  student  to  a  diet  of 
fish  for  strength  to  swim  and  cleave  the  depths  of  his 
ethereal  sea.  No  inertia  that  instinct  does  not  bore 
or  dive  into,  or  come  up  through,  to  breathe.  All  the 
faculties  of  the  mind — causality,  comparison,  memory, 
imagination,  constructiveness,  and  music  —  act  from 
instinct.  It  is  the  first  form  and  matrix  of  divine  inspi 
ration.  According  as  a  man  draws  from  books  and 
systems,  learning  and  recollection,  instead  of  this  liv 
ing  spring,  he  lacks  or  loses  power,  and  drops  from 
eloquence  and  pathos  into  oratory  and  recitative. 
What  this  quality  is  we  cannot  fathom  or  circum 
scribe.  Microscopy  and  analysis  detect  it  in  the 


THEISM.  125 

rhythm  of  the  particles  of  a  bar  of  steel  and  of  a  stone, 
as  a  universal  nature,  which  is  another  name  for  God. 
It  is  one  tune  and  many  variations,  like  "  Home,  Sweet 
Home,"  through  endless  travesties  of  the  pianist,  —  an 
unsearchable  essence,  an  innumerable  sum. 

The  third  witness  is  Character,  which,  whoever  pos 
sesses,  knows  he  never  created,  but  only,  like  the  block 
under  the  etcher,  yields  himself  obediently  to  receive. 
No  virtuous  man  takes  the  credit  of  his  own  virtue. 
It  is  no  manufacture  of  the  mind,  but  a  product  and 
projection  from  behind  the  will,  use  whatever  subor 
dinate  shaping  we  may  to  fit  the  case  and  circum 
stance  :  "  And  this  not  of  yourselves  ;  it  is  the  grace  of 
God."  In  proportion  as  my  good  behavior  is  my  pri 
vate  intention,  conscious  of  its  charm  or  able  to  reckon 
its  merit,  it  is  at  fault.  It  is  beautiful,  only  as  ascribed 
to  the  Sovereign  Command.  Jesus  claimed  no  glory, 
for  it  cost  him  no  struggle  to  cast  off  Satan.  Think 
not  to  pay  me  for  the  service  I  render  you  !  Your  pay 
ment  is  an  injustice  and  offence.  Render  a  service  to 
somebody  else.  Pass,  as  Franklin  said,  the  favor  on. 
I  am  a  mere  agent.  I  do  the  King's  bidding,  like  one 
of  the  soldiers  of  that  old  centurion,  who  could  figure 
Jesus  only  as  captain  of  a  troop  before  which  diseases 
fled.  Render  your  dues  to  the  one  Author,  whom  all 
channels  of  benefit  and  mercy  represent.  How  ridicu 
lous  this  complaint  of  people's  ingratitude  for  your 
help  and  kindness !  Are  you  the  source  of  their  ad 
vantage  ;  or  did  you  communicate  it  for  recompense, 
as  a  hired  servant  that  grumbles  because  he  has  to 
wait  and  dun  for  his  wages?  Are  you  owner  of  the 
house,  carriage,  or  garden  you  invite  them  into?  Your 


126  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

demand  to  be  paid  likens  you  to  the  Roman  proconsul 
who  embezzled  the  provincial  fee  on  its  way  to  the  im 
perial  treasury.  Are  you  charitable  ?  It  is  God's  pity 
in  you.  From  his  winking  at  the  times  of  "  this  igno 
rance  "  your  lids  learn  to  drop,  while  lynx-eyed  pursuit 
of  any  sin  is  worse  than  the  sin. 

"Be  to  their  faults  a  little  blind." 

There  is  an  imperceptiveness  finer  than  any  sight. 
How  men  are  hit  with  the  pistol  they  wear  and  whip 
they  flourish  !  Censure  is  the  edge-tool  which  he  that 
handles  cuts  himself  with.  Judgment  and  righteous 
ness  are  a  line  and  plummet  nothing  in  the  world  can 
bear  to  meet.  Governments  are  not  carried  on,  taxes 
collected,  houses  and  railways  built,  or  any  machine 
run  with  perfect  rectitude.  Demand  ideal  purity,  and 
the  wheels  stop.  The  pump  has  to  be  fetched,  says  my 
friend,  with  dirty  water ;  though  it  would  seem  as  if 
New  York  had  used  too  much  !  In  business-dealings 
with  my  fellow-men  I  find  a  certain  per  cent  of  corrup 
tion.  But  1  am  too  busy  to  stop.  I  cannot  consume 
the  day  with  question  of  every  particular ;  it  were  an 
expense  of  nerves  more  precious  than  money.  I  am 
guilty  if  I  let  the  community  suffer  so  ?  But  I  suffer 
wrong  rather  than  suffer  myself.  The  Spirit  bids  me 
let  off,  and  not  sentence  many  a  criminal. 

How  such  compassion,  returned  for  wrong,  abounds 
among  the  purer  sex  !  Therefore  Goethe,  their  truest 
modern  delineator,  says  :  — 

"The  eternal  womanly  draweth  us  on." 

In  whatever  calamity  or  folly,  it  is  always  some 
woman's  hand  outstretched  to  take  us  up.  Lady  is 


THEISM.  127 

bread-giver.  She  that  blamed  us  when  we  throve 
will  feed  and  tend  our  hunger  and  disease.  Every 
man  has  been  a  Mungo  Park  without  travelling.  This 
is  the  crown  of  the  queen.  No  woman  has  reached 
supreme  merit  in  song  or  story,  policy  or  art.  It  was 
said  of  an  able  woman,  if  it  had  pleased  the  Lord  to 
drop  her  spirit  into  the  pantaloon  she  would  have  been 
a  great  general.  But  what  match  would  Elizabeth  of 
England  or  Joan  of  Arc  have  been  for  Cromwell  or 
Napoleon?  Yet,  as  organs  of  Divine  forgiveness,  we 
have  a  thousand  women  for  one  man.  I  do  not  wonder 
when  the  Catholics  desire  Heaven's  mercy  they  call 
on  the  Virgin  for  her  prayers. 

All  great  character  is  the  flow  of  Divine  love  and 
justice  through  the  human  soul.  Looking  at  Niagara, 
an  eminent  statistician  said,  There  is  power  to  turn  all 
the  machinery  in  the  world.  But  does  not  the  gazer 
at  that  green  tide  feel  the  force  of  a  mightier  flood  be 
hind  his  smallest  act  of  right?  "  My  usual  weight  is 
a  hundred  and  forty  pounds,"  said  the  countryman  ; 
"  but  when  I  am  mad  it  is  a  ton."  There  are  no  limits  to 
the  sacred  rage  for  equity.  Not  by  wealth  or  numbers, 
but  its  cause,  Union  beat  Secession.  "  We  have  figured 
out  this  sum,"  said  the  slaveholder  to  Mr.  Garrison, 
"  and  are  sure  to  prevail."  "  It  would  seem  so  ;  only  you 
have  omitted  one  thing,  that  is  God,"  was  the  reply. 
When  the  civil  war  broke  out,  and  boys  under  age  ran 
away  to  enlist  and  fling  themselves  in  the  Dragon's 
mouth,  a  joyful  sacrifice  for  liberty  and  the  land,  was  it 
their  own  will,  or  something  that  took  it  captive  as  a 
tool  for  its  majestic  design,  and  made  a  paradise  for 
them  of  the  field  of  death  ?  A  true  spiritualism,  not 


128  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

that  which  is  but  the  sensuality  of  the  spiritual  world, 
nerved  their  arms.  Their  motive  was  not  a  thought 
of  any  shiny  place  they  were  going  to,  but  conscious 
glory  of  the  spot  they  were  in.  .  Virtue  or  duty  is  ever 
such  heavenly  joy ;  all  notion  of  reward  is  foreign  to 
it.  Samuel  J.  May  hardly  expected  his  translation 
would  make  him  happier.  "  I  may,"  he  said,  "  have 
clearer  vision,  but  not  more  confiding  faith."  The 
saint  only  asks  to  be  permitted  to  continue  to  feel  and 
love  as  he  does  already.  Dr.  Tuckerman  declared  his 
idea  of  eternal  bliss  was  fulfilled  in  his  ministrations 
to  the  poor.  When  one  dilated  on  Christ's  anguish 
for  man's  deliverance,  Charles  G.  Loring  answered,  it 
was  his  privilege  to  think  Jesus  the  happiest  man  that 
ever  lived.  What  a  superstition  that  he  was  crushed 
by  the  penalty  of  sin  of  millions  dead  or  unborn  !  Did 
that  wine  of  the  Passover,  that  water  of  the  Samaritan 
well,  or  that  corn  rubbed  in  his  disciples'  hands,  have 
no  refreshment  or  flavor  in  his  mouth  ?  Was  not  the 
meat,  they  knew  not  of,  a  feast  which  no  funeral  of 
earthly  life  or  comfort  could  offset?  My  neighbor's 
delight  in  feeding  his  own  horses,  the  little  girl's  in 
tolling  the  fishes,  the  minister's  who  has  bread  of  God's 
word  to  dispense,  needs  no  supplement  of  supernatu 
ral  touch.  The  disembodiment  we  call  death  cannot 
make  it  more  celestial.  God  recompense  it  with  palms 
and  harps  and  crowns,  gold  pavements  and  streets  of 
pearl?  It  reminds  one  of  the  Oriental  prayer:  "  Have 
mercy,  O  Lord,  on  the  bad  ;  for  Thou  hast  done  every 
thing  for  the  good  in  making  them  so  !  "  My  inclina 
tion  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  time,  talent,  pleasure,  or 
life,  is  a  gift  from  him  too  great  for  aught  else  as  pay- 


THEISM.  129 

ment  or  equivalent  to  be  possible.  Let  others  spend 
their  immortality  surveying  the  precious  stones  of  the 
New  Jerusalem  !  We  will  sell  every  share  in  that  city 
for  new  commissions  in  the  war  against  woe  and  sin  ; 
and  not  covet,  in  comparison  with  the  service  we  en 
list  for  to  the  end,  even  the  wine  the  Master  told  his 
followers  he  was  to  drink  new  with  them  in  the 
Father's  kingdom. 

This  disposition,  not  created  by,  but  breathed  into 
us,  is  witness  of  God.  The  carver  at  his  table,  though 
eating  no  morsel,  has  the  best  portion,  as  the  most 
blessed  and  enviable  person  at  the  board  is  the  host, 
who  divides  all  his  dainties  among  his  guests.  Here 
is  a  quality  which  no  politic  contrivance  or  utilitarian 
experience,  no  calculation  of  carnal  solace  to  revenge 
temporary  abstinence,  and  no  generalization  of  remote 
selfish  benefits  of  any  sort,  can  account  for.  It  is  pos 
itive  life  of  that  Infinite  One  whose  own  joy  is  com 
munication,  and  to  imitate  whom  alone  makes  us 
communicants. 

The  great  achiever  is  never  wilful,  but  possessed. 
In  wilfulness  the  will  of  God  or  man  were  lost.  The 
great  are  conscious  of  destiny :  what  they  mean  is 
meant  in  them.  Napoleon  had  a  star ;  Jackson  swore 
by  the  eternal  splendor ;  Lincoln  waited  on  Provi 
dence,  and  would  not  force  events.  Called  coward  by 
the  impatient,  killed  for  a  tyrant  because  slavery  owned 
in  him  its  most  dangerous  foe,  branded  as  a  compro 
miser  by  reformers  conscientious  but  unwise,  —  when 
he  died,  and  the  lots  were  cast  for  what  he  left,  his 
coat  also  was  found  woven  without  seam  ;  for  no  high 
phrase,  extreme  ground,  radical  or  doctrinary  extrav- 

9 


130  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

agance,  can  compare  with  the  character,  which  is 
God's  fitting  such  a  man  to  his  purpose,  —  as  he  was 
so  conspicuously  to  whose  cradle  the  Magi  were  led 
at  Bethlehem,  and  who  will  survive  all  his  critics,  new 
or  old. 

The  fourth  witness  is  Art,  the  expression  of  truth  in 
the  form  of  beauty,  be  it  what  it  may  we  call  beauti 
ful,  —  picture,  sculpture,  music,  or  manners  ;  for,  take 
whatsoever  shape,  without  inspiration  it  is  not  art. 
Poem  or  painting,  wholly  explainable  into  the  maker's 
dexterity,  is  not  art,  but  artifice.  The  part  that  could 
not  be  calculated  or  foreseen,  in  your  grace  or  elo 
quence,  which  was  the  escape  of  God,  where  your 
pen  like  the  Spiritualist's  pencil  was  guided  ;  the  slip 
of  your  tongue  ;  the  point  while  you  climbed  you  were 
raised  into  ;  that  of  which  you  knew  not  and  the  artist 
knew  not,  and  no  theory  can  clear  up  how  it  was  done  ; 
which  baffles  as  it  delights,  —  is  the  interesting  and  im 
mortal  portion.  In  the  composer's  company  you  are 
lifted  off  your  feet  because  he  was.  In  Retzsch's  en 
graving  of  a  scene  in  Homer,  the  deceased  hero  is 
borne  to  glory  by  angels.  So,  when  touched  by  any 
performance,  we  are  exalted  with  singer  or  speaker, 
and  tread  on  air.  A  bit  of  canvas,  on  which  genius 
has  put  its  mark,  can  no  longer  be  measured  by  the 
foot-rule.  A  visitor  of  Rubens's  Descent  from  the 
Cross,  being  told  it  was  time  to  go,  answered,  "  Wait 
till  they  get  him  down ! "  Who  has  not  seen  how 
leagues  of  land  and  water,  hill  and  sea-beach,  could 
be  brought  by  faithful  color  within  a  narrow  frame, 
and  the  universe  of  earth  and  sky  opened  to  our  glance 
by  a  few  happy  strokes  of  the  brush  ?  As  Madame 


THEISM.  131 

Guyon  was  elevated  by  religious  transport  from  the 
ground,  as  Mr.  Hume  in  his  trance  ascends  to  the 
ceiling,  so  we  go  up,  unaware  that  we  rest  below,  see 
afloat  by  the  magic  of  genius  in  an  ether  of  joy. 
Raphael  is  said  to  be  the  only  one  who  can  make  his 
angels  look  natural  in  mid-heaven,  and  absolve  them 
of  gravitation.  Does  he  not  make  us,  soul  and  body, 
just  as  light?  The  artist  in  his  rapture  heeds  not  laws 
of  Nature  in  any  mechanical  sense,  balks  at  no  diffi 
culties  that  make  materialists  halt,  but  revels  in  mir 
acle.  No  impossible  wonder  of  the  story  gives  him 
pause.  Paul  Veronese  makes  the  wine  run  red  at 
Cana  in  his  incomparable  sketch ;  Raphael  fetches 
down  Moses  and  Elias  to  witness  the  Transfiguration  ; 
Schaeffer  shows  the  hapless  lovers  in  their  penal  whirl ; 
and  Allston  displays  Samuel  rising  to  Saul  at  the 
Witch  of  Endor's  incantation.  What  is  the  ecstasy 
which  the  cold  canvas  can  impart  after  generations 
have  gone,  and  the  ideas  are  obsolete  from  which  it 
took  its  cue  ?  There  must  be  in  it  a  hint  of  truth  which 
physicists  do  not  suspect.  All  the  spiritualism  is  a 
hound  after  reality  more  precious  than  protoplasm  or 
animal  derivation  of  men.  Artists  are  not  atheists, 
however  artisans  may  be.  They  are  possibly  not 
church-members,  Sabbatarians,  or  liturgists  ;  but  they 
are  believers  and  worshippers.  A  spirit  passes  before 
them,  as  before  Job.  There  is  a  moment  or  place  in 
their  task  where,  in  the  Orthodox  phrarse,  they  know 
they  are  assisted.  It  is  no  flag  fleshly  appetite  can 
plant  on  the  celestial  coast.  It  is  what  on  their  voy 
age  a  holy  vision  wins.  This,  with  Jesus,  was  the 
transcendent  bliss.  Disparage  not  art :  he  was  artist ! 


132  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

From  no  such  official  or  wretch  as  the  popular  theol 
ogy  misfashions  could  have  come  the  spoken  music 
of  those  parables  and  sermons,  conversations  and 
prayers.  Such  sentences  of  solace  and  benediction 
were  moulded  by  lips  that  had  exquisite  sense  of  the 
melody  of  words.  Was  there  art  in  Plato's  philoso 
phy  or  Homer's  lines?  Put  his  periods  beside  any  of 
theirs.  The  ring  is  as  true,  the  tone  as  sweet,  the 
rhythm  as  complete,  while  the  matter  is  more  mo 
mentous  and  sublime.  Verse-wright  or  logician  many 
a  one,  but  no  teacher  without  Divine  breath. 

Does  it  shock  piety  to  couple  art  with  the  Saviour  of 
the  wrorld  ?  Who  but  the  world's  Maker  is  the  supreme 
artist?  His  works  are  beautiful  persons  and  immortal 
souls.  Art  is  man's  nature,  and  man's  nature  is  the 
art  of  God.  Manners  are  an  art  as  much  as  tinted 
cloth  or  carved  stone.  The  gracious  element  will  flow 
into  every  various  act  and  motion,  as  the  same  fountain 
has  many  jets.  We  hear  of  eminent  creators  grouty 
and  inaccessible,  like  Turner ;  and  of  poets  and  phil 
osophers  being  taken  suddenly  ill,  and  jumping  into 
bed  when  callers  were  announced.  But  it  was  to  avoid 
the  intrusion  of  reporters  and  insolence  of  gossips. 
There  is  a  rudeness  gentlemen  must  use  to  the  im 
pertinent,  a  shell  sensibility  exudes,  a  chevaux-de-frise 
the  tender  heart  sets  up  against  unjust  fault-finding  or 
unwarranted  approach.  But  without  inward  grace  is 
no  insurance  of  courtesy  even  in  the  feminine  frame. 
Such  arrant  rebels  were  the  women  of  the  South,  Gen 
eral  Butler  must  print  something  about  she-adders  at 
his  office-door ;  and  in  both  the  French  Revolutions  a 
special  fury  seized  on  women  more  than  men.  From 


THEISM.  133 

the  genuine  artist,  politeness,  on  whoever  has  capacity 
to  receive  it,  will  flow.  William  Blake,  treating  the 
companion  of  his  walk  with  rare  deference,  had,  with 
second-sight,  still  loftier  salute  for  St.  Paul  passing 
them  on  the  way.  This  magnificent  style  depends  on 
no  prim  particulars  of  elaborate  study.  I  can  think  of 
an  artist,  who  may  smoke,  dance  into  all  the  positions 
of  an  acrobat,  wear  a  cap  in  your  presence,  use  exple 
tives  to  pious  folk  profane,  with  such  overrunning 
good-will  in  every  look  and  gesture  to  his  pupils  and 
peers,  —  keeping  no  secrets  of  his  skill,  but  telling  every 
thing,  as  a  scholar  said  he  left  his  manuscripts  open  for 
all  on  his  table  ;  and  giving  to  each  comer  alternately 
a  piece  of  his  mind  and  a  piece  of  his  heart,  expend 
ing  with  reckless  profusion  his  vitality  in  good  advice  ; 
drawing  smiles  and  tears  alike  with  his  pencil  and  his 
tongue,  and  setting  everybody  astir  with  his  voice  as 
with  the  drummer-boy  from  his  brush,  —  that  no  one 
shall  say  where  the  authentic  art  begins  or  ends.  That 
such  a  man,  moved  unwittingly  by  something  greater 
than  his  exceeding  wit,  should  deny  God,  were  as  if 
the  finger  denied  the  brain.  I  have  come  to  see  your 
possessions,  was  said  to  a  land  purchaser,  who  an 
swered,  I  own  none  of  these  acres  :  I  am  a  possession 
myself. 

In  all  art  we  take  example  from  God.  "  All  the 
world  's  a  stage,"  writes  Shakspeare.  It  is  also  a  pic 
ture,  which  the  Author  leaves  us  to  finish.  It  is  a  col 
lection,  the  best  in  which  we  are  puzzled  to  decide. 
From  admiring  the  tawny  lion  we  are  diverted  by  the 
shining  bug.  Our  eye  is  taken  with  the  frowning  cliff, 
but  taken  of}'  bv  the  billow  dashinsr  at  its  base  ;  and 


134  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

again  soon  forgets  the  foamy  rush,  to  be  absorbed  in 
the  long  stretch  of  noiseless  flats  clothed  in  green  and 
yellow  by  the  retiring  tide.  When  paint  is  added  to  a 
boarded  house,  it  is  like  covering  a  lank  frame  with 
generous  flesh  and  blood.  But  God  leaves  the  world 
no  skeleton.  How  Nature  hastens  to  heal  every  gash 
of  coulter  or  carriage,  or  cannon-wheel !  People  take 
glasses  to  inspect  the  details  of  a  landscape  by  Church, 
or  battle-piece  of  Le  Brim.  How  do  they  compare 
with  the  shadings  on  the  back  of  a  turtle,  scales  of  a 
fish,  neck  of  a  dove,  or  wing  of  a  fly?  We  say  of  a 
well-adorned  creature,  it  is  beautifully  marked.  The 
fierce  leopard,  prowling  panther,  stealthy  cat,  cum 
brous  cow,  slow  ox,  are  designed  and  drawn  as  if  God 
could  let  nothing  mean  or  savage  drop  from  his  hand 
without  his  signet,  as  a  painter  writes  his  initials  on 
his  least  sketch. 

"  Did  He  who  made  the  lamb  make  thee?" 

writes  Blake  of  the  tiger.  Yes,  answers  the  soft  dec 
oration,  supple  motion,  glittering  eye.  Divine  intent 
in  lavish  charm  is  here,  as  in  the  meek  ball  of  wool. 
How  the  spell  for  the  population,  of  caravans  and 
menageries,  vindicates  the  wild  beast  we  think  fit  only 
to  exterminate  !  Are  not  the  animals  themselves  artists, 
into  whom  a  taste  for  beauty  descends?  Watts  writes 
of  the  bee,  — 

"  How  skilfully  she  builds  her  cell! 
How  neat  she  spreads  the  wax ! " 

No,  says  the  theologist ;  nothing  but  instinct.  But 
wiser  science  discovers  voluntary  intelligence  ;  and  we 
find  that  birds  alter  and  adapt  their  nests  as  men  their 


THEISM.  135 

dwellings  to  new  situations.  Are  not  the  modulations  of 
their  songs,  too,  learned  and  enriched  by  degrees,  —  one 
note  or  trill,  in  successive  ages  of  these  winged  citizens, 
joined  to  another?  Surely  the  lark,  thrush,  linnet,  and 
nightingale,  are  not  deaf  as  a  flute  or  hand-organ  to 
their  own  melodies.  They  are  no  wood-work  of  dumb 
show  to  entertain  us,  but  have  something  of  the  feeling 
of  Braham  or  Malibran  in  their  breasts,  some  organ  of 
tune  in  their  tiny  brains,  and  appreciation  of  harmony. 
They  must  despise  the  senseless  screams  that  pass  in 
some  of  our  parlors  and  churches  for  secular  or  sacred 
music.  They  sing  and  play  more  true  than  many 
choirs  and  organists.  They  are  their  own  composers, 
and  have  no  Mozart  or  Beethoven  to  give  them  the 
score.  Is  not  their  nerve  and  faculty  the  Lord's  com 
position,  part  of  the  music  of  the  spheres?  The  art 
that  is  God's  exercise  is  his  demonstration  too.  "  He 
has  made  every  thing  beautiful  in  his  time  ;  "  and,  how 
ever  our  modern  Orthodoxy  may  note  exceptions,  if 
there  be  a  Hell,  I  doubt  not  that  is  handsome  too. 

The  last  witness  is  Experience.  Everybody  comes, 
like  FalstafF,  to  need  God,  —  One  eternally  alive  to  suc 
cor  and  befriend.  I  cannot  quite  credit  the  professions 
of  entire  content,  with  which,  looking  only  to  annihila 
tion,  some  lay  their  offspring  in  the  dust,  and  have 
their  own  coffins  made.  It  is  a  cheerless  belief,  or  dis 
owning  of  faith,  that  no  God  makes  his  rendezvous  in 
the  human  breast,  or  becomes  conscious  of  himself  in 
his  children's  mind.  When  we  go  down  into  depths 
beneath  the  sun  and  air,  not  to  find  him  were  madness 
and  despair.  He  is  there  to  bring  us  up,  like  divers 
with  pearls  in  our  hands.  There  are  cases  in  which 


136  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

no  man  can  redeem  his  brother.  Mortal  or  angelic 
help  will  not  avail.  Something  the  soul  must  have  for 
its  reliance  :  one  cannot  lean  on  himself.  Who  does 
not  feel  the  pathos  of  the  situation  when  Rip  Van 
Winkle  says  his  dog  is  the  only  friend  he  has  left !  But 
there  are  extremities  wherein  no  friend  in  sigfht  will 

o 

suffice.  The  Invisible  Almighty  we  want.  If  some 
other,  as  Jesus,  the  Virgin  Mother,  or  Guardian  Angel, 
stand  instead,  it  is  but  as  his  proxy  to  assure  us  of  his 
pardon  and  support.  Happy  they  who  require  no 
medium,  attorney,  or  friend  at  court,  being  at  home 
with  the  great  Appointer  and  on  good  terms  with  the 
King  ;  able  to  say,  like  one  when  admonished  to  make 
his  peace  with  God,  "  I  am  friends  with  him,  and  we 
have  never  quarrelled." 

We  cannot  rest  in  multitude,  in  the  many.  There  is 
no  single  creature  that  is  not  many,  of  imperfect  prin 
ciples  and  inconsistent  moods.  "  My  husband,"  said 
a  hopeless  woman,  "  is  hurt  at  what  I  did  with  the 
best  purpose  :  I  do  not  expect  to  please  him  in  any 
thing."  "  I  feel,"  said  another,  pointing  as  we  sailed, 
"  that  I  am  that  long,  lonely  island,  looking  over  on 
other  peoples'  trees."  But,  in  the  sense  of  unity  em 
bracing  the  world,  we  are  at  peace.  The  doctrine  of 
Spiritualism,  held  as  of  a  swarm  of  spirits  of  all  dis 
positions,  without  Infinite  Spirit,  can  only  discompose. 
Such  a  Spiritualist  wrote  me,  "  Truth  cannot  prevail 
without  the  abolition  of  the  Christian's  God."  Spirit 
ualist  and  Atheist !  What  a  worse  than  Chinese 
puzzle  this  chaos  and  limbo  of  spirits,  — 
"Black,  white,  and  gray, 
With  all  their  trumpery!" 


THEISM.  137 

The  many  only  repeat  the  One,  and  are  impossible 
without  it.  Take  away  the  mathematician's  unit,  and 
all  his  mighty  calculations  sink.  Take  away  the  real 
Unit,  and  the  universe  is  no  more.  It  is  easy  to  call 
names,  to  brand  as  atheist  him  that  believes  not  in 
your  God,  who  may  be  finite,  fetish,  devilish.  But 
discard  the  vital  Unity  to  adopt  the  elements  and  par 
ticles  alone  for  your  countless  senseless  fathers  and 
mothers,  and  religion  is  the  hypocrisy  of  an  empty 
name.  In  the  One  only  we  repose,  and  meet  any  fate. 
A  friend,  dying  of  cancer  in  the  throat,  said  :  It  is  his 
will ;  and  I  have  so  suited  my  mind  to  it  that,  should 
anybody  come  in  and  say,  Alice,  you  are  going  to 
get  well,  E  know  not  how  I  could  bear  that ! 

We  fondly  trust  each  other,  but  no  fellow-creature 
can  bear  our  whole  weight.  We  shrink  from  omnipo 
tence,  not  knowing  what  it  will  do  with  us  ;  but  the 
Almighty  is  all-tender.  Among  men,  it  is  not  the  strong 
that  disturb  us,  but  the  weak.  Strength  of  will  and 
feeling  raises  and  soothes.  The  feeble  irritate  and 
torment.  The  superficial  chop-wave  on  the  sea  vexes 
and  annoys  and  disquiets  the  sleeper  as  it  dashes 
sharp  and  angry  on  the  shore.  But  the  ocean's  ground- 
swell  lifts  skiff  or  frigate  gently,  and  how  silently,  as 
an  infant  rises  and  falls  on  the  mother's  heaving 
breast.  The  resonant  surge  along  the  tremendous 
rocks,  as  mellow  as  it  is  mighty,  is  delicious  unsatiating 
music,  never  tires  the  musing  mind,  hushes  the  weary 
frame  in  the  soft  resistless  swing  which  sun  and  moon 
stand  ready  to  push  to  and  fro,  is  a  pleasant  accom 
paniment  of  thought ;  and,  with  its  rote  in  time,  re 
minds  of  the  roll  of  eternity.  The  image  is  with  me 


138  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

still  of  one  whose  eye-lids  drooped,  as  by  some  pre- 
established  harmony,  with  the  regular  dip  of  my  oars 
on  the  slopes  of  the  sliding,  watery  heaps.  So  on  this 
slippery  surface  of  time  we  are  borne  by  a  Providence 
we  cannot  fathom  or  withstand.  The  Power  that  is 
measureless  can  afford  to  be  kind. 

"  Hark  to  the  voice  of  the  mighty  sea, 
Whispering  how  meek  and  gentle  he  can  be." 

The  shallow  freshet,  the  brawling  brook,  cannot  help 
being  rough.  O  my  brother  or  sister,  precious  are  your 
regards  ;  but  if,  in  sore  distress,  it  is  the  mildest  treat 
ment  I  need,  if  my  heart  is  wounded  within  me  per 
haps  by  your  ill-considered  word,  then  with  David  I 
call  for  mercy  on  Him.  His  hand  is  as  much  easier  as 
it  is  greater.  Nature  is  that  hand,  into  whose  hollow 
creep  alike  the  bleeding  soul  and  the  stricken  deer. 
His  breath  is  more  healing  than  any  human  speech  : 
solitude  is  that  breath.  Thousands  charm  and  cheer 
me,  but  One  sustains.  Without  Him  we  are  confused, 
dissipated,  and  dissolved.  In  his  Being  we  are  and 
cannot  cease  to  be. 

But  there  are  conditions  of  knowing  God :  first, 
intellectual.  We  call  atheist  the  man  who  does  not 
accept  our  definition.  But  we  must  see  God,  if  at  all, 
in  his  act.  We  cannot  part  him  from  what  he  does, 
or  between  Creator  and  creation  stick  a  thought.  Once 
he  was  supposed  too  pure  to  soil  his  hands  with 
making  the  world  ;  that  he  employed  apprentices,  or 
used  for  a  proxy  his  Son  ;  or,  if  he  constructed  it  as  a 
carpenter  and  owned  it  as  proprietor,  like  an  absentee 
landlord  he  left  it  to  run  itself  in  certain  grooves  of 


THEISM.  139 

rule,  while  he  took  the  air  in  some  celestial  Boule- 
varde,  showing  his  hand  occasionally  to  break  his 
laws,  playing  a  game  of  hide-and-go-seek  with  his 
creatures,  and  caught  only  in  some  marvel.  The 
sacred  hymnist  prompted  our  thanks  that  we  — 

"  Are  not  left  to  Nature's  light 
To  know  the  Lord ;  " 

as  if  an  author  could  be  published  in  aught  but  his 
works.  God's  revealing  is  in  what  theologians  consid 
ered  his  veil.  Spinoza  was  counted  atheist  because 
he  could  see  nothing  but  God ;  as  Novalis  said,  was 
drunk  with  him.  Nature  the  wreck  and  ruin  of  a  fall  ? 
No :  his  costume  changed,  summer  or  winter,  every 
day.  Peruse  him  in  printed  ink  alone,  when  we  turn 
the  rock-pages  of  the  globe,  the  album  and  picture-book 
for  his  children's  amusement,  containing  not  the  seven 
wonders  we  read  of  in  our  primer,  but  showing  all  is 
such  wonder-land  where  we  live  that  nothing  in  par 
ticular  as  a  miracle  can  be  distinguished  and  defined  ! 
A  good  editor  tells  me  my  God  is  Brahma,  because  he 
is  One  I  cannot  get  rid  of  or  cut  off'  from  myself. 
But  I  have  never  been  able  to  pronounce  his  name. 

There  is  a  moral  condition  of  knowing  him.  A 
liar  is  atheist,  conceiving  only  of  some  power  he  can 
circumvent.  If  you  make  partial,  deceptive  statements. 
I  shall  find  out  the  missing  links  which  Darwin  hunts 
for  in  the  earth's  autobiography.  How  surely  in  every 
falsehood  the  Deity  sees  himself  denied  !  The  duplic 
ity  of  the  Pharisees  was  their  own  blind  which  they 
could  not  see  him  through  ;  but  his  beauty  shall  break 
out  all  over  you  into  eyes.  The  false  reasons  are  not 


140  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

only  insulting,  but  profane  ;  and  whoever  gives  no  such 
is  rare  and  divine.  Every  deceiver  imitates  the  ostrich 
with  its  head  in  the  sand  and  its  body  out.  My  friend 
in  the  cars  did  not  know  how  clearly  I  saw  her  unwill 
ingness  anybody  should  take  the  empty  seat  by  her 
side.  The  moon  eclipses  the  sun,  and  is  eclipsed  by 
a  sixpence  close  to  the  eye  ;  and  all  double-dealing 
eclipses  God.  As  criminals  are  described  in  adver 
tisements,  how  we  placard  the  uncandid  on  the  inner 
walls !  They,  and  no  theoretical  atheists  are  without 
God.  We  can  readily  think  of  people  who  keep  on 
their  premises  a  pot  of  varnish  and  plenty  of  veneer. 
From  the  shop  of  their  mercenary  mechanics  comes 
nought  but  superficial  mimicry  of  value,  —  the  excel 
lence  skin  deep,  the  meanness  a  foot  thick.  Be  mahog 
any  all  the  way  through,  if  you  would  have  your  reli 
gion  pass  for  more  than  pretence.  "  Oh,  that  I  knew 
where  to  find  him  !  "  dost  thou  cry,  O  Job  ?  Find  your 
self  in  his  service,  which  is  justice  to  his  creatures,  and 
you  will  not  miss  him.  For  the  man  who  gave  to  the 
Missionary  Society  the  money  he  owed  for  his  wood- 
bill,  saying  he  must  pay  God  first,  that  Being  must 
have  been  hard  and  far  to  reach.  Weave  your  dogma 
out  of  prophets'  tongues,  you  will  not  catch  him  :  put 
your  fence  of  form  never  so  high,  you  cannot  impound 
his  Spirit.  He  will  stay  only  in  the  truth  of  your  own 
lips  and  purity  of  your  eye.  He  laughs  at  your  creed 
like  the  morning  at  the  prism  in  which  you  would  ana 
lyze  and  confine  its  beam.  If  he  be  not  in  your  pur 
pose,  you  can  have  him,  like  Greek  or  Jew,  only  round 
in  spots.  Your  righteousness  is  the  Real  Presence. 
Theodore  Parker  over  a  sceptic's  coffin  said,  u  O  Lord, 


THEISM.  141 

though  he  doubted  thy  being,  he  lived  thy  law  ;  "  and 
all  who  had  come  to  wonder  what  prayer  could  be 
uttered  were  convicted  as  less  faithful  than  the  man  in 
his  shroud. 

There  are  doubtless  professors  of  atheism,  idolaters 
of  science  like  Vogt,  carrying  contempt  of  religion  so 
far  as  to  class  the  apostles  with  apes.  Self-esteem  in 
their  brain  fills  the  whole  space  reverence  should  share. 
A  French  Communist  general,  being  asked  if  he  be 
lieved  in  God,  answered,  No  ;  and  he  would  not  toler 
ate  him  if  he  did  :  it  was  one  against  many,  a  tyranny 
he  would  resist  and  erect  the  barricades  in  heaven,  — 
feeling  as  Milton's  Satan  did  about  the  God  whom 
only  "  thunder  had  made  greater."  This  was  the 
insane  anarchy  washed  out  of  the  streets  of  Paris  with 
the  blood  of  sixty  thousand  men.  The  God  that  had 
been  preached  to  them,  of  Calvinist  and  Jesuit,  priest 
and  cardinal  and  pope,  undeserving  his  sceptre,  was 
too  like  the  earthly  rulers  whom  liberty  and  brother 
hood  led  them  to  withstand.  "  What,  then,"  the 
French  officer  was  asked,  "do  you  believe  in?"  El 
bow-deep  in  gore,  "  Universal  Harmony,"  he  replied, 
—  with  no  Harmonist,  only  a  tune  as  on  a  barrel-organ 
playing  itself!  No  wonder  a  bar  was  set  up  for  a  trial, 
in  which  binocular,  ambidexter,  centipedal,  believing 
Germany  was  appointed  judge.  Nevertheless,  an  ob 
scure  sense  of  right  inspired  that  Commune,  and  every 
honest  drop  of  blood  shall  have  a  resurrection. 

All  science  of  the  understanding  God  escapes.  No 
microscope  or  telescope  will  ever  discover  him.  A 
devout  scientist,  apologizing  for  his  brethren,  said, 
"  They  are  too  much  occupied  and  tired  with  their 


142  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

specialties  of  investigation  to  entertain  the  subject  of 
Deity."  But  is  it  not  their  method  which  for  any 
spiritual  pursuit  is  at  fault? 

There  is,  to  know  God,  a.  spiritual  condition.  Is 
faith  his  communication  to  us  or  our  unfolding  to  him  ? 
He  will  impart  himself  in  the  ratio  of  our  growth. 
Doctors  tell  invalids  it  will  do  them  good  to  take  deep 
inspirations  of  their  own  breath  ;  and  travellers  say 
they  get  no  just  impression  of  Niagara  or  St.  Peter's 
till,  by  often  gazing,  they  grow  up  to  what  they  con 
template. 

So  with  our  seeking  our  source.  All  things  help 
us.  I  found  a  teacher  in  the  little  brown  bird  filling 
the  sky  with  its  song  from  a  throat  no  bigger  than  a 
straw.  As  I  wrote  in  the  field  a  heifer  came  up  to  me. 
I  offered  her  some  clover.  She  shook  her  head,  did 
not  want  that.  I  stroked  her  forehead.  She  jerked 
her  horns  again  :  it  was  no  cosseting  she  was  after. 
She  stood  and  looked  as  I  drove  my  pen,  and  was  but 
immensely  curious  to  know  what  I  was  about  there  on 
her  domain.  What  was  the  green  worm  crawling 
towards  me  along  the  walk  but  some  bit  of  an  old  sin 
trying  in  it  to  lift  its  head  from  the  ground?  Every 
dumb  creature  is  one  round  in  an  angel-ladder  we 
mount  on  to  God  and  heaven.  The  beast  has  no  dread 
because  no  idea  of  death.  Our  ability  to  face  and  an 
ticipate  destruction  is  proof  we  are  not  to  be  destroyed. 
Your  joyless  outlook  at  annihilation,  like  the  Indian 
death-song,  refutes  your  doctrine  of  doom.  With  one 
glance  at  the  universe  we  feel  some  One  is  happy,  with 
whom  we  shall  have  a  good  time.  Some  of  us  de 
bated,  if  shut  up  to  the  alternative,  which  we  should 


THEISM.  143 

prefer,  faith  in  God  or  in  our  own  immortality.  Let 
me  go  down,  if  only  so  he  can  remain  eternal  supply, 
to  vanishing  creatures,  of  dissolving  views.  But  God 
were  suicide  if  he  killed  himself  in  his  children,  mur 
derer  if  he  slew  his  children  in  himself,  deceiver  if  he 
stirred  expectations  he  must  disappoint,  robber  if  he 
waylaid  us  for  any  treasure  of  friendship,  spurious 
benefactor  if  he  snatched  away  what  he  had  once 
bestowed. 

"  Chip,  chop,  chain, 
Give  a  thing  and  take  it  back  again !  " 

"  Do  you  believe,"  one  was  asked,  "  in  the  devil  ?  " 
"  No  :  I  believe  in  God."  The  man  who  doubts  the 
reality  of  sin  is  held  a  pantheist.  But  he  who  regards 
sin  as  an  essence  is  not  a  theist.  Thought,  which  is 
imperative,  and  no  respecter  of  persons,  must  charge 
him  with  being  an  atheist.  Satan  is  agent  and  tool,  not 
a  chess-player  saying  Check  to  God.  He  is,  and  there  is 
none  else,  —  eternal  equation  of  the  universe.  It  is  no 
subtraction,  but  seal  of  his  infinity,  that  he  can  leave  his 
own  solitude  and  make  persons  in  relation  with  him 
self,  Person  of  whom  they  are  part,  able  to  love  and 
pray.  Were  the  Divinity  a  single  consciousness  de 
vouring  as  quick  as  it  produced,  it  would  be  a  helpless 
and  futile  force.  Its  power  to  differentiate,  hinted  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  generation  of  the  Son,  is  its 
own  authentication. 

From  the  teachings  of  many  churches  and  schools, 
we  should  suppose  God's  nature  a  collection  of  con 
tradictory  qualities,  like  those  creatures  which,  though 
hostile,  are  caged  together,  to  look  askance  and  growl 


144  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

at  each  other ;  living  only  in  a  sort  of  truce  or  armed 
neutrality.  So  he  has  to  keep  the  peace  in  this  quar 
relsome  family  of  his  own  inclinations.  He  compro 
mises  between  them,  is  the  great  Compromiser.  God 
is  good  ;  but,  we  are  told,  forget  not  he  is  holy  too, 
and  that  his  holiness  limits  his  grace.  No  !  his  holi 
ness  expresses  his  grace.  He  is  equally  benignant 
whether  he  comfort  or  strike,  as  light  and  lightning 
are  but  the  same.  A  Methodist  said  to  a  Calvinist, 
"  Your  God  is  my  Devil."  But  we  all  have  really  the 
same  God.  The  overseer  on  the  plantation  was  an 
obsequious  person  to  the  owner,  cruel  to  the  slave,  — 
wreathing  his  face  with  smiles,  with  a  whip  under  his 
cloak.  God  turns  a  shining  look  on  high  and  low. 
He  has  not  given  you  up  !  The  writer  in  Genesis,  and 
Paul  in  his  Epistles,  were  mistaken  and  disrespectful 
in  supposing  he  had  failed  with  Adam  and  Eve.  One 
described  the  virtue  of  a  persevering  ecclesiastical 
organizer  as  like  the  mill,  once  having  grasped  the 
log,  not  letting  it  go  till  it  was  turned  to  account  of  all 
its  value.  So  God  will  never  have  done  with  us  till 
we  are  converted  to  all  we  are  good  for.  He  will  get 
the  last  drop  of  music  out  of  us.  Jesus  was  in  error 
if  he  thought  God  had  forsaken  him.  We  remember 
the  town-crier,  who  used  to  go  round  ringing  his  bell, 
and  shouting,  to  inquire  for  some  lost  child,  and  set 
the  whole  population,  on  every  wharf  and  by-lane,  to 
hunting  him  up.  I  have  known  all  the  inhabitants  in 
a  village  kept  awake  because  some  lad  had  not  returned 
from  the  woods ;  and  large  parties  organized  for  the 
search.  The  meanest  and  worst  is  as  dear  to  God  as 
the  one  we  call  his  Only-begotten.  Parents  are  sup- 


THEISM.  145 

posed  to  have  favorites ;  but  the  good  father  or  fond 
mother  will  never  tell  the  pet  of  the  house,  however 
by  look,  act,  or  manner  the  secret  be  betrayed.  They 
are  ashamed  of  their  partiality.  God  has  no  partiality 
to  be  ashamed  of.  No  sublime  personage,  king  or 
genius,  profound  philosopher  or  special  messenger,  is 
an  inch  nearer  to  his  good-will,  a  hair's-breadth  deeper 
in  his  embrace,  than  the  humblest  breather. 

God  is  the  same  in  all  ages  and  nations.  We  think 
he  has  some  far-away  Golden  Age,  like  the  com 
mencement  of  the  Christian  era ;  and  the  Jews  put  it 
still  further  back  with  Father  Abraham.  They  appro 
priated  Jehovah,  made  a  monopoly  of  the  Lord,  on 
that  little  strip  of  territory ;  letting  the  heathen  — 
Hivites,  Jebusites,  and  the  rest  —  have  some  poor  little 
wretched  deities,  Moloch  and  Remphan,  of  their  own, 
but  no  share  in  Him  who  thundered  from  the  moun 
tain,  and  had  led  them  to  Sinai  through  the  Red  Sea  ; 
as  the  modern  Chinese  think  all  worship  and  civiliza 
tion  barbarous  but  their  own.  Almost  all  Christians 
fancy  the  Pagans  under  a  curse,  and  not  a  few  put  the 
world's  favored  time  eighteen  centuries  ago.  To  the 
question  in  the  mental-photograph  album,  which  is 
the  last  toy  we  play  with,  In  what  period  'Would 
you  have  rather  lived?  they  answer,  When  Christ 
was  born.  Those  were  the  times  of  glory,  when  the 
star  went  before  the  wise  men,  and  the  annunciation 
came  to  Mary ;  the  angels  sang  over  the  cradle,  the 
Holy  Ghost  descended  as  a  dove,  and  in  tongues  of 
flame,  and  there  were  healings  and  feasts  and  resur 
rections  !  Now  the  age  of  miracles  is  past.  But  is 
God  less  manifest  now  than  then  ?  Was  there  formerly 


146  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

more  of  him  in  the  world?  Has  he  lost  ground? 
Absurd,  impossible,  impious  to  presume  !  What  those 
wonders  were  we  cannot  exactly  say,  only  that  Jesus 
told  his  followers  greater  were  to  come ;  and  just  as 
great  now  as  ever.  Where  would  you  rather  have 
lived  ?  in  Bethlehem  or  Bethany  or  Jerusalem,  rather 
than  Boston?  What  illusion  of  false  color  through 
the  kaleidoscope  of  history,  the  stained  glass  of  imagi 
nation,  we  turn  on  the  Distant  and  the  Past !  "  Are 
you  going  to  the  Holy  Land  ? "  said  one  to  my  friend. 
"  No,"  he  answered  :  "  why  should  I  be  flea-bitten  at 
Nazareth?"  As  if  the  Holy  Land  were  Palestine 
more  than  England  or  Massachusetts  !  The  steps  of 
Christ?  They  are  no  more  on  the  slope  of  Olivet  or 
along  the  shore  of  Galilee,  road  to  Emmaus,  or  way 
to  Capernaum,  than  in  every  place  of  need  and  path  of 
progress,  or  enterprise  of  philanthropy.  Asylums  for 
the  sick,  and  cargoes  of  flour  for  starving  Frenchmen 
three  thousand  miles  off,  are  as  good  and  sacred  as  the 
upper  chamber  of  the  Passover  or  the  Cross  carried 
to  Calvary.  A  mission  to  India  or  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  a  commission  sailing  to  San  Domingo,  or 
sitting,  lords  from  England  and  peers  in  America,  at 
Washington,  to  settle  international  disputes,  —  are  as 
divine  as  conclaves  of  apostles  dividing  out  their 
routes  over  land  or  sea  to  Corinth  and  Athens,  and 
Thessalonica  and  Rome.  The  reports  of  committees, 
examining  matters  essential  to  the  public  weal,  ought 
to  be  as  religious  in  motive  as  any  old  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians  or  the  Hebrews.  Why  should  the  living 
Present  slink  away  so  ashamed  before  the  ghost  of  the 
Past?  To-day  is  as  good  as  ever  dawned.  Egotism  — 


THEISM.  147 

abounding,  all-devouring  coveting  of  place  and  pri 
ority,  loving  to  lead  —  alone  hinders  the  Divinity,  as 
Victor  Hugo  said  Napoleon  with  his  ambition  an 
noyed  God.  We  have  no  one  king  or  queen,  crowned 
like  Victoria  or  William  ;  so  everybody  wants  to  be 
empress  or  emperor.  In  what  shining  talents  and 
splendid  virtues  this  self-love  is  the  only  flaw,  fatal 
to  the  rounded  integrity  !  No  egotist  can  be  greatly 
loved.  However  modest,  deferent,  deprecatory  you 
are,  if  a  pushing  forth-putting  temper,  a  greed  of 
precedence  be  the  main-spring,  people  will  know  it ; 
and  the  nearer  you  come  and  friendlier  you  would 
seem,  the  more  they  keenly  feel,  and  make  you  feel, 
their  distrust.  Be  not  the  fly  in  your  own  ointment. 
Lo  !  all  the  constellations  of  truth  and  beauty  in  God's 
heavens  are  waiting  and  wanting  to  come  down  to 
you,  and  you  put  yourself  a  mote  in  the  object-glass 
of  your  own  telescope,  to  shut  out  the  spectacle  and 
spoil  the  revelation !  Leave  your  self-pronunciation 
at  last  behind.  Simon  Magus  thought  the  Holy  Ghost 
could  be  bought  for  money :  will  you  sell  it  for  admi 
ration?  It  will  not  be  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  some 
plausible  falsehood  —  mock  pearl,  paste-diamond, 
pinchbeck  metal  —  your  vanity  barters  for  its  food  to 
grow  fat  on.  You  are  high  and  lofty,  O  my  man  of 
talent  and  fame  !  But  any  man,  to  move  me,  must  not 
be  so  tall  I  cannot  see  God  over  him. 

The  lower  creatures  have  the  same  God  as  we. 
They,  like  the  poor  negroes  once,  have  been  neglected 
in  the  pulpit  and  the  religious  books.  Of  that  beauti 
ful  Mosaic  Law,  "  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  that 
treadeth  out  the  corn,"  Paul  asks,  "Doth  God  take 


148  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

care  for  oxen?  Or  saith  he  it  altogether  for  our 
sakes  ? "  With  all  due  respect  for  the  great  apostle,  I 
answer,  Yes  :  God  does  care  for  oxen  as  well  as  for  us. 
In  this  slighting  comment  on  the  poor  patient  drudges 
for  man  I  have  no  share.  Beast  and  bird  how  like  us  in 
nature  as  in  structure  !  I  saw  some  pigeons  lighting 
on  a  narrow  window-ledge.  There  not  being  quite  room 
for  all,  it  interested  me  to  see  how  dainty  and  restless, 
with  what  clean  and  delicate  step  they  moved,  like 
men  or  women  on  a  crowded  bench.  At  last  one  or 
two  got  up  as  you  do  in  a  car,  only  on  wings  instead 
of  legs,  then  flew  off  to  a  wider  seat ;  where,  the  rest 
following,  they  formed  in  line  again,  and  seemed  to 
have  an  excellent  social  festive  time  together,  as  if 
they  were  giving  a  party  or  returning  calls.  I  thought 
they  behaved  as  sensibly  as  people  do  in  a  pew  or  at 
a  picnic,  and  were  as  kind  and  polite  as  gentlemen 
and  ladies.  I  saw  a  dog  make  signs  with  his  right 
forepaw  to  his  master  across  the  street  as  if  asking 
leave  to  come,  and  then  spring  over  like  lightning 
the  moment  he  was  allowed.  Those  our  poor  kins 
folk  have  a  measure  of  inspiration.  He  whom  we 
worship  is  God  not  only  of  the  Jew  or  Gentile,  but 
of  the  hunted  deer  and  over-driven  horse.  "  Not  a 
sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground  without  your  Father  " : 
is  not  that  in  all  literature  the  tenderness  most 
sublime  ? 

"Tiger,  tiger,  burning  bright 
In  the  forests  of  the  night, 
Did  He  who  made  the  lamb  make  thee?" 

Yes :  the  tiger  has  rights  not  to  be  tormented,  which 
we  are  bound  to  respect. 


THEISM.  149 

Through  all  material  changes  God  abides  the  same. 
The  revelation  of  Him,  before  whose  face  the  heaven 
and  earth  fled  away,  only  anticipated  science.  Gross 
bulk,  there  is  no  more  in  the  world :  nothing  is  left  but 
power.  Matter  is  committing  suicide  in  the  material 
ist's  hands.  We  stand  face  to  face  with  the  Infinite 
Force.  We  sometimes  see  in  man  or  woman  a  Beauty 
that  takes  away  our  breath.  It  is  a  ray  of  the  Divine 
Spiritualism  to  announce  the  retinue  of  spirits,  without 
which  the  universe  would  seem  a  tomb ;  but  all  have 
one  God. 

Can  we  speak  to  him  ?  Can  we  refrain,  with  this 
geyser  in  our  heart  bursting  up  to  heaven?  But  he 
sees  our  situation.  Beggary  will  not  turn  one  hair 
white  or  black.  "  Which  way  do  you  call  the  wind?  " 
an  Irishman  was  asked.  "  I  could  not  call  it  any 
way,"  he  replied.  How  about  the  wind  that  bloweth 
where  it  listeth  ?  Becalmed  in  Frenchman's  Bay,  our 
skipper  whistled  for  the  wind  importunately  and  long, 
till  it  came  in  a  gale  from  the  hills.  Who  can  read 
Cowper's 

"  Celestial  breeze,  no  longer  stay, 
But  fill  my  sails  and  speed  my  way," 

without  a  heart-echo?  Earnest  seeking  is  prayer. 
Charles  Goodyear  spent  his  substance,  threw  in  his 
health,  used  up  his  family,  and  tired  patrons  and 
friends  searching  for  a  form  of  India-rubber  to  be  of 
service  in  the  arts ;  till,  as  Forceythe  Willson  said, 
"Nature,  also  worn  out,  told  him,  'Take  it,  my 
child  !'"  When  my  search  for  a  lost  keepsake  became 
agony,  I  found  it  in  dust  or  desert  or  sea.  God  is 
constrained  by  prayer,  and  cannot  choose  but  heed  our 


150  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

request ;  for  the  genuine  prayer  in  us  is  part  of  him 
self  and  no  whim  of  ours,  as  we  are  part  of  him.  It 
belongs  to  the  constitution  of  things,  and  is  one  of  the 
laws  that  cannot  break.  God,  said  one,  could  have 
made  a  finer  fruit  than  the  strawberry.  No  :  in  the 
French  phrase,  he  does  his  whole  possible.  Can  he 
help  seeing  us?  Hearing  us,  no  more  !  "  Thou  must 
hear  me,"  Luther  said.  He  bides  tryst.  You  will 
not  give  your  razor  or  the  reins  to  a  child.  God  will 
give  us  only  good.  When  words  fail  us,  the  inward 
incense  rises  and  rests  ever  in  the  soul,  like  smoke 
from  the  chimney,  the  cloud  on  Mont  Blanc,  or  the 
powdery  snow  blown  for  ever  round  the  head  of  the 
Ortler  Spitze,  the  Alp-giant  in  the  Tyrol.  "  I  took 
him  up  into  my  room  and  prayed  with  him,"  said 
the  minister,  of  the  Liberal  Tract  distributer  at  the 
Tremont  Temple  ;  "  but  I  have  concluded  not  to  be 
bothered  with  him  any  more."  But  prayer,  that  is 
perfunctory  or  used  as  magic,  is  jugglery  and  pretence. 
It  must  be  patient  and  painstaking,  like  that  in  the 
Garden,  to  be  heard. 

We  seek  unity  :  but  God  is  difference  too.  The  Son 
is  eternally  generated,  not  as  an  individual,  but  an  ele 
ment  in  the  entire  substance  and  essence  of  things. 
Physical  science  as  vainly  as  metaphysical  strives  to 
reduce  this  other  yet  not  alien  quality.  The  philo 
sophic  astronomer  tells  us  of  the  fire-mist  or  nebula 
or  world-stuff,  of  which  the  worlds  were  made.  We 
might,  so  far  as  concerns  solving  the  problem  of  crea 
tion,  as  well  stop  with  the  shining,  rolling  worlds 
themselves.  Whence  the  vapor  they  are  made  of,  is 
as  hard  to  say  as  whence  the  masses  and  orbits  com- 


THEISM.  151 

plete.  The  point  we  make  is  a  paradox,  alters  not  our 
position,  and  brings  us  no  nearer  the  Source.  Can  we 
get  the  universe  out  of  a  primordial  germ?  From 
some  vesicle  was  the  balloon  of  Nature  inflated,  and 
the  whole  bubble  blown?  By  what  breath  without 
mouth  or  lungs !  The  bellows  must  be  accounted  for, 
and  One  they  were  handled  by.  A  marvellous  child 
thrust  his  pipe  into  that  soap  from  which  star  and 
planet  were  thrown  off!  Such  a  view  of  the  origin  is 
a  conception,  but  no  thought.  It  is  unthinkable.  So  is 
all  derivation  of  Nature  from  design.  We  can  speak 
of  the  design  of  an  artist  or  artisan.  There  are 
models  and  patterns,  after  which  weavers  and  carpen 
ters  arrange  their  thread  and  timber.  But  we  cannot 
distinguish  between  the  Originator  and  his  work.  Cre 
ator  and  creation  who  can  separate  with  his  eye  or  in 
his  mind?  I  conceive  of  the  fender,  which  I  look  at 
while  I  write,  as  constructed  of  iron,  smelted  from 
ore,  blasted  or  quarried  from  the  mine  by  a  series  of 
inventions.  But  whither  did  God  go  for  his  materials, 
and  in  what  manner  were  they  fetched?  Did  they  lie 
at  first  within  or  outside  the  Being  they  were  used  by? 
For  God  there  is  no  quarry  to  discover,  and  no  date 
to  lay  his  corner-stone.  It  is  not  supposable  that  he 
began  at  any  point  in  time  or  space,  or  that  there  was 
any  beginning,  such  as  the  Book  of  Genesis  declares. 
It  commences  now,  says  the  photographer  to  his  sitter. 
But  He  never  commenced.  The  universe  was  never 
less,  nor  will  be  greater,  any  more  than  himself.  We 
may  say,  fitness ;  but  any  attempt  to  consider  periods 
or  compartments,  as  including  all,  is  nonsense  and 
folly.  God  has  no  era,  and  the  epochs  we  name  are 


152  RADICAL    PROBLEMS.* 

for  accommodation  and  convenience,  not  perfect  science 
or  history  of  his  deeds.  The  Pyramids,  Strasbourg, 
Vatican,  had  their  architects.  Ceiling  of  the  Sistine 
Chapel  was  plaster  once.  But  none  has  ever  breathed 
to  say  where  or  how  the  Eternal  Builder  put  his  hand 
to  the  foundation  of  his  palace  ;  and  Jesus  is  as  igno 
rant  of  the  day  or  hour  as  the  babe  in  your  crib.  Mr. 
Huxley  gives  us  a  good  phrase  in  the  "  Physical  Basis 
of  Life  ; "  yet  his  protoplasm  is  itself  no  simple  thing, 
but  combination  or  composition  of  several  elements, 
whose  putting  together  is  a  mystery  so  beyond  our 
search,  that  the  adjective  proto,  or  first,  seems  a  sheer 
assumption  and  misnomer.  The  First  hides  under  and 
behind  every  atom  he  employs.  Besides,  Mr.  Stirling 
shows  how  proofless  is  the  dogma  that  any  one  proto 
plasm  serves  for  vegetable,  animal,  and  man.  Every 
species,  through  the  whole  range  of  organization,  may 
have  its  own.  Its  homogeneity  takes  for  granted  the 
point  to  be  demonstrated,  and  is  recommended  to  the 
mind  by  the  fascination  and  flattery  there  always  is  in 
any  single  explanation  of  all  phenomena. 

There  is  in  matter  no  elucidation  of  the  genesis  of 
Nature.  Spirit  is  the  first  term.  Thought  is  the  start 
ing-place,  not  the  result.  Infinite  Self,  to  which  time 
or  place  is  not,  save  as  opportunity  of  motion  and 
transition,  is  the  centre,  which  is  circumference  too. 
All  we  know  is  a  Becoming,  which  is  in  and  from 
Being.  Blessed  that  the  secret  is  not  found  out  by  us  ; 
for  then  the  object  and  continuance  of  life  were  gone. 
It  was  said  of  one,  She  ceases  to  care  for  a  man  as  soon 
as  she  knows  him.  Be  not  regretful  you  have  not 
ascertained  the  Divine  method  :  no  interest  in  existence 
for  an  intellectual  creature  would  remain. 


VI. 

NATURALISM. 

THEOLOGY  has  been  a  standing  insult  to  Nature. 
But  by  what  rights  of  primogeniture?  It  is  no 
elder  brother  or  better  born.  Nature  is  that  word  of 
God  which  theology  means.  The  assault  is  suicide. 
It  is  a  false  contrast  to  oppose  Nature  to  Revelation, 
every  syllable  of  which  comes  through  her  mouth. 
Nature  is  not  contrary  to  Spirit  which  it  voices,  nor  to 
art  which  voices  it,  but  only  to  artifice.  The  true 
distinction  is  that  all  religion  which  is  not  natural  is 
artificial.  Nature,  or  our  knowledge  of  Nature,  ad 
vances,  while  theology  is  stationary,  —  professes  to 
have  learned  out.  It  sits  by  the  roadside  with  impro- 
gressive  complacency,  as  a  lout  reviles  the  sister  that 
passes  by.  No  wonder  the  theologian  insists  that 
Nature  cannot  tell  us  of  God  ;  for  she  never  originated, 
and  cannot  indorse  his  schemes.  Living  close  to  Na 
ture  is  good  for  health  and  worldly  wisdom  :  why  not 
for  character  and  truth,  and  to  import  common  sense 
into  our  creed  ?  Here  is  Nature's  revenge  :  that  every 
system,  so  far  as  it  leaves  her,  becomes  artificial.  Is 
this  quality  better  in  doctrine  or  ritual  than  in  man 
ners  or  speech  ?  Much  of  the  present  belief  and  wor- 


154  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ship  of  the  Church  lacks  genuineness.  It  has  no 
charm  for  a  sincere  mind,  or  challenge  for  the  attention 
of  a  strong  one.  Those  who  wait  on  the  ministrations 
complain,  as  some  have  done  at  watering-places,  that 
the  table  is  poor,  the  food  scant,  and  they  have  to 
carry  their  own  provisions,  though  but  a  cracker,  to 
partake  of  in  secret.  Said  my  friend,  who  was  over- 
persuaded  to  go  to  a  showy  church,  "  I  had  to  spend 
my  time  looking  round  at  the  building  and  the  bon 
nets  ;  for  I  took  in  the  sermon  with  the  millionth  part 
of  my  mind."  Many  Churchmen  and  Church-women 
so  belong  to  the  great  class  of  artificial  people,  it  is 
not  strange  those  who  can  abide  nothing  but  reality 
choose  to  be  unchurched,  and  that  thoughtful  persons 
fall  away  from  ordinances  and  tests.  Artificial  folk 
we  know  too  well  in  society  to  wish  to  meet  them  in 
the  temple.  Their  love  is  painted  fire  ;  their  protec 
tion,  a  Quaker  gun  ;  their  loyalty  is  for  the  spoils  of 
office  ;  their  philanthropy  rises  when  the  tide  turns 
against  slavery  and  oppression ;  and  they  will  be  for 
woman's  rights  when  the  majority  of  men  are.  We 
have  all  been  cursed  with  artificial  friends,  following 
and  smiling  in  our  prosperity,  as  when  you  go  forth 
on  a  bright  day  every  lazy  creature  creeps  out  to  bask 
in  the  sun.  But  the  overcast  sky  of  our  fortunes 
shows  their  affections  to  be  affectations.  In  our  ex 
tremity  they  desert  us.  When  we  are  sick  and  weak, 
and  they  have  no  hope  we  can  do  any  more  for  them, 
they  drop  off*.  They  will  not  need  us,  and  think  we 
shall  not  complain  or  call  them  to  account  when  we 
are  gone  ;  for  "  dead  men  tell  no  tales."  Their  ties 
with  us  are  for  ornament  alone,  like  those  knots  and 


NATURALISM.  155 

bands,  cunningly  carved  in  architecture,  giving  but  the 
appearance  of  strength,  only  weakening  the  pillars  by 
every  grain  in  their  construction  cut  away.  Nature, 
from  the  lips  of  piety  a  term  of  reproach,  and  mark 
of  man's  depravity  and  corruption  of  the  world  ?  We 
speak  of  the  Divine  nature.  But  when  we  change  the 
adjective  to  human,  it  spoils  the  noun,  and  Milton's 
"  human  face  divine  "  is  a  contradiction  in  terms  !  Not 
so.  Nature  is  substance,  and  every  thing  substantial 
is  good. 

"All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul." 

But  do  the  scholars  who  think  Nature  herself  fallen 
consider  what  blasphemy  to  His  body  is  their  diagno 
sis?  Nature  is  the  proceeding  of  spirit,  language  of 
revelation,  material  and  finish  of  art ;  for,  says  Shak- 
speare,  — 

"  Nature  is  made  better  by  no  mean, 
But  Nature  makes  that  mean  :  so,  o'er  that  art, 
Which,  you  say,  adds  to  Nature,  is  an  art 
That  Nature  makes." 

There  is  no  distinction  of  natural  and  revealed  relig 
ion.  Either  is  the  other,  if  one  or  both  be  true.  It 
matters  not  whether  our  knowledge  be  growth  into 
God  or  his  descent  into  us. 

But  for  what  ideas  are  we  to  Nature  in  debt?  First, 
that  of  Infinity.  Does  it  come  from  Scripture  ?  But 
whence  the  Scripture  ?  From  creation  the  prophet's 
mind  had  it,  ere  it  could  flow  from  the  prophet's  pen. 
All  ideas  are  within,  phenomena  are  but  the  occasions. 
Imagination  is  the  artist  sitting  in  his  secret  studio  to 


[56  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

mould  and  tint  the  stuff  of  Nature's  quarry.  Without 
the  starry  vault,  whence  the  notion  of  immensity? 
This  sparkling  hollow  what  shape  shall  match  ?  Tak 
ing  a  hint  from  geometrical  figures,  my  friend  called 
it  diagrams  of  light.  It  seems  an  endless  beach  for 
the  eye  to  wander  over.  It  is  an  hour-glass  through 
which  stars  fall  like  sand.  It  is  a  celestial  railway  to 
whose  last  station  we  never  get.  u  Milky  Way  "  we 
call  part  of  it ;  and  the  new-arrived  German  pointed 
and  asked  if  it  were  Milk  Street.  It  is  headland  after 
headland  from  which  we  leap  into  the  bottomless  deep. 
It  is  a  transparent  lake  we  sail  over,  a  trembling  line 
we  hang  on,  our  downward  gaze  returning  the  image 
of  the  upward.  Nature  pale  before  revelation  ?  God 
lighted  her  great  altar-candle  as  well  as  the  lamp  of 
reason,  or  taper  in  any  prophet's  bosom,  and  the  too 
often  dark  lantern  of  the  Church. 

Is  Eternity  an  abstract  conception?  The  world  is  a 
notched  stick,  a  register  of  vast  lapses.  Said  the 
Greek,  It  never  grows  old.  But,  fresh  as  it  contrives 
to  look,  it  bears  marks  of  incomputable  age.  It  is  a 
genealogy  and  record  of  time,  —  man's  family-tree. 
Had  it  been  fashioned  to  cover  its  tracks  and  efface 
its  own  history  ;  if  the  earth  obliterated  all  transac 
tions  on  its  surface  or  in  its  depths  ;  if  it  came  before 
us  spick  and  span,  with  the  furniture  varnish  upon  it 
just  from  the  shop,  like  something  turned  from  a 
lathe,  created  new  every  moment  as  sentimental  phil 
osophers  say, —  what  could  it  give  us  of  that  feeling 
of  duration  which  is  our  stepping-stone  into  eternity  ? 
But  as  I  walk  along  the  shore  and  note  the  crumbling 
cliffs,  the  fragments  fallen  in  countless  heaps,  the  cob- 


NATURALISM.  157 

ble-stones  they  have  been  worn  into,  the  comminuted 
pebbles,  and  the  fine  brown  or  white  sand  into  which 
the  granite  mountains  have  at  last  been  ground  by  the 
waves  ;  as  I  notice  huge  upland  boulders  delicately 
poised  as  if  their  melting  vessels  of  ice  had  let  them 
softly  to  the  ground,  and  others  with  bits  of  stone 
underneath  acting  as  chisels  with  which  they  have 
ploughed  their  way,  showing  in  the  smooth  grooves 
the  unmistakable  direction  of  the  geologic  scratch  ; 
and  as  I  observe  how  Nature,  ready  to  heal  her  own 
wounds,  has  clothed  with  beautiful  lichens,  in  colors 
faster  than  of  any  art,  their  enormous  sides,  —  I  ask 
how  long  it  took  to  do  all  this  ;  and,  from  the  futility 
of  attempting  any  chronology,  take  refuge  in  the  ever 
lasting.  I  looked  at  a  cedar  rooted  on  the  edge  of  the 
precipice,  —  an  old  Atlantic  sentinel,  standing  guard 
of  vegetable  life  over  against  the  barren  waste  before 
Columbus  heaved  in  sight  of  the  Western  shore,  —  with 
the  knotted  stump  of  a  more  ancient  tree  enclosed.  We 
do  not  remember,  said  my  friend,  when  we  did  this  :  it 
has  dropped  out  of  our  recollection.  We  have  turned 
over  some  of  the  pages  of  this  "  infinite  book  of  se 
crecy,"  and  detect  everywhere  vestiges  of-'  former  life. 
We  dig  up  fossil  remains  of  animal  and  plant.  We 
find,  in  petrifactions,  other  cemeteries  and  mausole 
ums  than  man  has  reared.  We  discover  in  caves 
rude  tools  of  primitive  fashion.  We  explore  in  the 
rock,  once  mud,  the  prints  of  the  feet  of  pre-Adamite 
birds.  We  calculate  the  periods  requisite  to  build  the 
coral  reefs  and  lagoons  of  the  Pacific  Sea.  Mr.  Dar 
win,  trying  to  explain  the  origin  of  all  existence  from 
primeval  germs,  has  to  confess  missing  links ;  and 


158  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

knows  not  how  long  they  were  in  Nature's  chain,  or 
what  gulfs  they  spanned  in  the  bridge  of  the  never- 
ending  march.  Of  our  idea  of  eternity  Nature  is  the 
suggestion,  if  the  Eternal  One  be  the  cause. 

Has  not  the  idea  of  Omnipotence  like  derivation,  — 
the  will,  we  are  conscious  of,  confirmed  in  things?  All 
this  motion  hints  the  self-moved,  the  Infinite  Determina 
tion.  How  admirably  dextrous  he  who  keeps  half  a 
dozen  balls  in  the  air  !  But  what  the  vigor  and  supple 
ness  by  which  these  larger  countless  ones  are  kept  from 
falling  or  interfering?  To  the  invisible  wind,  sweep 
ing  and  striking,  rousing  the  ocean  to  send  far  inland 
the  sound  of  fury  with  which  it  founders  ships  at  sea 
or  dashes  them  ashore,  making  the  midnight  sky  the 
alarm-bell  struck  by  its  hammer,  —  whence  or  whither 
in  its  flight  we  cannot  tell,  or  how  twisted  into  the 
tornado  over  the  plains  and  among  the  gorges  of  the 
hills  ;  simoom  of  the  desert,  hurricane  round  promon 
tories  and  among  the  islands,  or  cyclone  and  typhoon 
of  the  Indian  seas,  — we  owe  the  conception  of  strength. 
That  we  may  not  miss  this  realizing  sense,  the  earth 
quake  does  not  confine  itself  to  the  tropics,  but  travels 
north  to  shake  every  city  and  village  by  turns.  Vol 
canoes  open  to  show  the  pent-up  vapor  in  this  boiler 
of  the  planet  is  not  exhausted  ;  and  make  us  shudder 
at  the  force,  in  rivets  of  iron  and  rock,  beneath  the 
mighty  deck  we  tread.  On  every  side  are  signs  of 
unexpended  power  whose  leash  is  in  the  Almighty 
hand.  We  ponder  over  the  long  dykes  of  trap-rock 
that  lace  the  granite  coast,  and  ask  what  heat  and 
fierceness  thrust  them  up  from  their  fusion  far  below. 
In  one  spot  on  the  American  continent  the  terrible 


NATURALISM.  159 

pot  has  overflowed  and  spread  in  a  chaotic  mass  all 
about ;  and  in  some  places  the  granite,  through  which 
the  molten  streams  were  forced,  has  itself  melted  again, 
and  risen  to  break  in  two  the  trap  by  which  itself  was 
broken  at  first.  As  a  ship  signals  to  us  her  condition, 
so  does  this  aerial  vessel  of  the  globe  inform  us  of  her 
story  and  state.  Does  she  not  hold  out  colors,  the  flag 
of  power,  to  which  the  banners  of  nations  are  vanity  ? 
I  know  not  what  innate  sense  I  may  have  had  of  a  re 
sistless  will ;  only  that  the  resounding  breeze  which 
woke  me  on  my  bed  in  the  dark  woke  also  my  child 
ish  soul.  Gentler  tokens  of  equal  energy  more  affect 
me  now,  in  the  tide  coming  and  going  every  day.  I 
sit  and  write  on  the  sea's  edge.  As  I  look  up,  the 
waters  have  ebbed,  the  sea  has  lost  its  arm.  In  the 
empty  bay  the  long  sea-weed,  that  had  stood  upright 
with  perpetual  courtesy  in  the  waves,  lies  prostrate  for 
leagues,  and  paints  with  pale  green  the  wide  reaches 
that  take  their  names  from  long  since  deceased  tenants 
that  saw  the  picture  as  I  see  it  now.  No  loom  ever 
wove  carpet  like  the  stripes  and  patches  of  brown, 
yellow,  and  black  that  variegate  this  marine  verdure, 
through  which  the  sluggish  channel,  shrunk  to  a  thread, 
winds  its  way,  turning  the  neighboring  islet  into  main 
land  accessible  to  foot  of  man  or  beast.  I  bend  to  my 
task  in  that  musing  work,  which  makes  hours  pass  as 
instants ;  then  lift  the  eye,  and  lo  !  the  inlet  is  full 
again,  so  that  fleets  of  kingdoms  might  ride  on  it. 
Without  raising  its  voice  to  the  murmur  of  one  louder 
ripple,  the  sea  has  rolled  in.  What  mathematics  shall 
reckon  the  liquid  tons  heaped  against  the  hemisphere 
while  I  have  not  heard  the  ticking  of  the  clock  ?  It 


l6o  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

seems  no  unworthy  task  for  the  sun  and  moon  to  carry 
this  water-pot  of  the  planet  on  their  shoulders,  to  fill 
the  pail  now  for  the  East,  now  for  the  West ;  and  of 
this  refrigerator  and  salt  sanitarium  make  the  most  for 
mankind. 

But  it  takes  not  things  of  tremendous  weight  and 
size  to  stir  this  sense.  A  little  bird,  lighting  on  the 
tree-top  and  filling  the  whole  air  for  miles  with  the 
song  from  its  slender  throat,  while  the  sun  climbs  to 
the  zenith,  excites  the  feeling  of  ability  and  vitality 
which  there  is  no  way  to  estimate  or  play  out,  more 
than  of  the  turning  on  their  axes  of  planets  and  suns. 

What  did  those  who  have  pronounced  upon  Nature's 
defects  know  of  her  resources?  They  were  like  an 
infant-school  pretending  to  all  the  knowledge  pos 
sessed  by  their  mistress.  How  invention  has  gone  for 
ward,  and  our  conception  of  Nature  with  greater  stride, 
wiping  out  inadequate  notions  on  which  the  old  creeds 
were  based,  since  this  conventional  disparagement 
began,  and  compelling  perpetual  revision  of  theology ; 
though  Conservatism  resists,  like  the  mop  of  Sydney 
Smith's  famous  Dame  against  the  tide ! 

But  one  want  in  Nature,  it  is  said,  we  must  confess : 
there  is  no  sign  of  forgiveness  or  mercy.  We  depend 
on  the  miraculous  communication  for  that.  Can  there, 
then,  be  aught  in  God  not  signified  in  his  works?  If 
Nature  remits  no  penalty  of  broken  law,  is  there  proof 
that  God  does  ;  or  is  any  voiding  or  suspension  of  law 
an  equal  fiction,  in  the  wrorld  or  the  soul  ?  Goodness 
is  manifest :  the  universe  overflows  with  it.  What  at 
first  we  count  hostile  turns  out  to  be  friendly ;  arid  this 
love  or  goodness  is  the  only  attribute,  including  all  we 


NATURALISM.  l6l 

call  tenderness  or  pity,  such  as  seems  to  quiver  on  the 
lips  of  the  Phidian  Jove.  The  mercy  is  not  in  letting 
us  off'  from  the  proper  punishment  in  full  measure  for 
our  fault,  but  in  so  constituting  us,  and  ordaining  the 
issues  of  our  acts,  that  no  sin  can  be  fatal ;  a  fatality 
of  eternal  woe  for  temporary  transgression  being  the 
monstrous  wrong  and  cruelty  for  so  many  ages  palmed 
off  on  human  superstition  for  the  justice  of  God.  Have 
children  a  right  to  parental  sympathy?  To  Divine 
compassion  we  have  the  same  claim.  It  is  no  gratuity 
he  could  fairly  withhold,  at  his  arbitrary  choice.  It  is 
not  his  option,  but  necessity.  It  appears  in  all  his 
providence  as  much  as  in  any  special  grace.  It  is 
what  physicians  call  Nature's  healing  power.  The 
instinctive  effort  to  expel  any  bane  from  the  system  in 
the  shape  of  disease,  —  a  cough,  sweat,  fever,  eruption, 
which  is  the  evil  demon  going  out  of  doors ;  the  mar 
vellous  recoveries  from  nervous  functional  organic 
prostration,  Nature  being,  what  man  is  erroneously 
called,  the  resurrection  doctor  ;  the  formation  of  a  new 
tooth,  bone,  nail,  or  claw,  when  the  old  has  decayed 
or  been  torn  away  ;  the  abundant  juices  that  run  in  the 
same  season  to  a  second  crop  of  grass,  berries,  blos 
soms,  or  fruit ;  the  throes  of  remorse  to  drive  out 
iniquity  before  the  setting  in  of  mortification  or  dry 
rot,  —  all  show  salvation  in  the  make  of  things  as 
much  as  in  any  supernatural  display. 

Character  must  absorb  and  be  nature  before  it  is 
worth.  Good-natured  is  our  term  to  describe  perfect 
temper.  Dr.  Spurzheim's  observation  forced  him  to 
say  he  preferred  a  wife  good  by  nature  to  one  good  by 
grace.  Benevolence,  to  be  relied  on,  must  go  deeper 
11 


1 62  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

than  will,  into  instinct  and  blood.  Then  there  is  no 
need  of  what  revivalists  call  change  of  heart.  I  have 
heard  Orthodox  people  depreciate  the  amiable  quali 
ties  I  regretted  they  did  not  possess.  Change  your 
heart,  O  friend  ?  So  much  the  worse  for  me  were  it 
changed  !  "  Keep  that  position,"  says  the  artist  to  his 
sitter.  Keep  that  disposition,  I  am  moved  to  say  to 
some  I  love  :  it  could  not  be  any  better.  "  She  has  not 
experienced  a  change,"  mournfully  one  said  of  a  dying 
negro  woman  who  w^as  a  Liberal  Christian.  "  We 
hope  not :  none  was  required  or  would  be  a  benefit," 
was  the  reply.  I  have  seen  in  a  young  child,  just  cut 
ting  her  teeth,  an  expression  of  patience,  which  was 
the  identical  trait  we  read  of  in  the  Book  of  Martyrs, 
with  beauty  not  surpassed  by  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den, 
the  three  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace,  Paul  in  the 
stocks,  Peter  in  the  dungeon,  or  Jesus  on  the  cross.  I 
should  not  have  admired  John  Brown  on  his  gallows 
any  more. 

But  did  not  the  Christian  dispensation  bring  in  merit 
of  a  quite  new  style  ?  It  were  sad  had  virtue  denied 
itself,  or  ever  been  born.  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  said 
Kossuth,  —  "I  do  not  like  the  phrase :  it  has  a  savor 
of  mortality."  The  heraldry  of  holiness  is  too  old  to 
trace :  it  has  not  altered  its  coat-of-arms.  Have  we 
nobler  than  Plutarch's  heroes  ?  Were  our  soldiers  at 
Bull's  Run  better  than  those  at  Thermopylae  ?  What 
modern  captain  braver  than  Codes  kept  the  bridge  ? 
Where  a  case  of  more  unselfish  sacrifice  than  Curtius 
leaping  into  the  gulf?  Is  maid  or  matron  now  more 
jealous  than  Lucretia  of  honorable  fame?  Purity, 
loyalty,  patriotism,  and  generosity  are  everlasting  ex- 


NATURALISM.  163 

cellencies,  the  monopoly  of  no  religion  or  age.  The 
oak  did  not  become  emblem  of  courage  battling  with 
harder  storms  than  the  north-east  can  unloose,  nor 
the  sweet-brier  with  its  roses  and  thorns  a  symbol  of 
intangible  chastity,  in  our  era.  There  were  brave  men 
before  Agamemnon,  and  virgins  before  the  mother  of 
Christ.  To  what  time  or  denomination  does  a  good 
man  belong?  He  is  Quaker  of  the  inner  light,  and 
Catholic  in  the  outer  worship  ;  he  sees  Unity  of  person 
branching  wider  than  any  Trinity  ;  he  is  at  home  with 
Methodist  fervor  and  Episcopal  decorum ;  he  likes 
Congregational  freedom  and  Presbyterian  order ;  he 
believes  in  Orthodox  discipline  and  Universal  redemp 
tion  ;  he  agrees  with  the  Spiritualist's  presence  of  un 
seen  friend,  and  in  a  rising  from  the  grave  of  body 
and  dust  into  a  glorified  form.  All  parties  covet  him 
because  he  adheres  to  none,  and  is  above  any,  having 
the  freedom  of  the  city  of  God.  No  society  or  cere 
monial  suffices  to  hold  or  bind  moral  integrity.  No 
meeting-house  is  big  enough  for  the  soul.  No  more 
empty  the  pretence  of  the  babe's  nurse  to  appropriate 
the  grown  man,  Washington  or  Lincoln,  than  that  of 
the  Church  to  keep  her  charge  in  leading-strings,  when 
it  has  outgrown  the  nursery-room  of  ecclesiastic  rule. 
I  remember,  when  a  boy,  how  I  envied  the  horses  out 
side  the  sanctuary  on  Sunday.  Though  they,  too,  were 
tied,  it  was  with  a  longer  tether ;  and  my  pasture  was 
dry  compared  to  their  green  round  of  grass. 

He  makes  better  men  than  churchmen,  was  the  com 
plaint  against  a  popular  preacher:  was  it  not  pan 
egyric?  Said  a  Radical  to  a  young  girl  in  a  Catholic 
school,  "You  cannot  be  religious  too  soon  :  you  need 


164  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

defence  from  whatever  quarter  against  earthly  vanities 
and  lures.  I  beg  you,  be  no  sectarian :  I  do  not  want 
you  for  a  proselyte  ;  I  would  rather  a  thousand  times 
you  should  be  defended  than  agree  with  me  in  opinion." 
All  who  are  religious  are  at  one,  and  need  only  the 
atonement  they  have  received.  By  a  humanity  deeper 
than  strife,  Rebel  and  Federal  soldiers  exchanged  com 
forts,  in  the  intervals  of  an  engagement,  across  the  for 
tification  lines  ;  so  we  stretch  hands  over  rival  frowning 
battlements,  and  recognize  each  other  by  a  surer  than 
Masonic  touch.  The  wisdom  of  Natural  Religion  is 
justified  of  her  children.  Wordsworth  doubtless  was 
a  good  member  of  the  English  Church,  but  spoke 
from  his  heart  when  he  wrote, — 

"And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 

When  SafFord  was  astonishing  a  circle  by  his  swift 
computations,  and  one  asked  by  what  training  he 
solved  the  fearful  sums,  "  By  nature,"  answered  the 
chief  of  American  mathematicians  standing  by.  We 
notice  this  divine  property  of  reverence  even  in  the 
beasts  who  look  up  to  man  as  their  deity.  Well,  if 
the  bowed  head  or  lifted  kerchief,  or  hat  held  before 
the  face  in  great  cathedrals,  express  always  a  deference 
as  sincere.  Even  the  worm  trying  to  raise  its  horned 
proboscis  makes  some  figure  of  aspiration.  The  alarm 
with  which  our  cruelty  has  managed  to  inspire  almost 
all  the  lower  creatures  is  inverted  veneration.  The 
highest  reach  of  spiritual  culture  is  nature ;  for  it 
is  absurd  to  call  natural  that  savage  state  from  which 
man  is  moved  naturally  and  irresistibly  to  depart. 


NATURALISM.  165 

The  consistent  theologians  took  bravely  the  conse 
quence  of  their  accusation  of  our  nature,  that  outward 
Nature  is  evil  too.  We  ridicule  the  mystic  fancy  that 
man  is  responsible  for  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  and 
might  say,  I  snow  and  rain;  but  it  is  matched  in  the 
older  doctrine  that  the  world  was  ruined  in  his  fall ; 
that  the  pits  and  brambles,  barren  swamps,  hot  deserts, 
and  icy  poles  and  ragged  cliffs,  came  of  his  sin.  Milton 
sings  of  the  tears  Nature  wept  over  the  eating  of  the 
forbidden  fruit ;  and  we  have  all  seen  and  felt  on  our 
cheeks,  as  if  on  hers,  those  plashing  drops,  blotches 
of  wet  falling  wide  and  slow,  from  which  he  doubtless 
took  his  line,  though  probably  nothing  dreadful  and 
deplorable  had  occurred.  It  is  our  mood  that  Nature 
is  cipher  of.  "  The  heavens  mourn,"  said  a  Democrat, 
on  a  rainy  day,  "  over  the  disastrous  vote."  "  These 
are  tears  of  laughter,"  a  Whig  replied.  The  rifts  in 
the  globe  are  too  grand  and  beautiful,  too  redundant 
in  health  and  fertility,  to  have  a  curse  for  their  cause. 
Who  would  have  the  world  round  as  a  bullet,  smooth 
as  a  ball  of  yarn,  bright  as  a  bead  in  the  sun  ?  These 
drifts  of  sleet  and  mist  shall  be  not  puddles  of  mud 
only,  but  sweet  springs  and  lilies  and  strawberries  by 

and  by. 

"The  dews  shall  weep  thy  fall  to-night," 

says  Herbert  to  the  Day :  but  how  many  morning- 
glories  from  such  dews  arise?  Byron's  like  figure  of 
Ardennes 

"  Grieving,  if  aught  inanimate  e'er  grieves, 
Over  the  unreturning  brave," 

might  be  of  gladness  just  as  well.  The  gorges  are 
better  than  a  polished  surface ;  the  billows,  than  an 


l66  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

unruffled  sea  ;  thorns  and  thistles,  than  the  spontaneous 
production,  in  which  man  himself  would  vegetate  and 
rot,  and  his  soul  never  rouse  from  sleep.  The  flower 
we  could  snatch  with  hasty  impunity  were  not  so 
lovely  as  that  whose  virgin  sweetness  we  win  from 
its  sharp  defence  with  a  bleeding  hand.  Only  from 
"  the  nettle,  danger,"  can  safety  be  plucked. 

Abolish  the  so-called  evil,  and  you  abolish  the  good. 
How  many  virtues  —  of  patience,  forgiveness,  commis 
eration,  magnanimity  —  are  conditioned  on  human 
defects  !  God  understands  himself  and  his  children 
in  them  also.  Beware  how  you  make  Nature  evil. 
Driven  out  with  the  theological  fork,  she  returns  and 
prevails.  Truth  to  my  nature,  good  or  bad,  is  my 
only  task.  Is  it  a  wasp's  duty  to  bring  honey?  Is  the 
copperhead  or  hooded  snake  accountable  for  its  venom 
or  fangs?  If  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  were  the 
devil's  children,  their  only  obligation  was  to  make 
good  his  designs. 

But  do  we  not  see  native  depravity  in  the  child,  — 
irritable,  wilful,  wanting  what  it  cannot  have?  What 
achievements  are  wrapped  up  in  that  will,  affections 
in  that  sensibility,  arts  and  sciences,  endless  inventions 
and  improvements,  in  those  wants  which  grasp  at  every 
shining  object,  and  are  discontented  that  the  moon  will 
not  come  down  !  You  are  angry  with  your  child  be 
cause  it  will  not  be  polite  as  you  dictate.  But  the 
fault  is  yours,  not  its.  Will  you  beat  it  with  brute 
strength  ?  Would  you  mould  it  in  your  fingers  as  wax 
or  dough?  Do  you  not  own  that  new  individuality 
Divine  Personality  shapes  because  it  needs  another 
instrument,  and  desires  no  repetition  of  you,  whom 


t  UNIVERSITY  ) 

NATURALISM.  1 67 

. 

one  said,  It  is  enough  to  have  once  ?  God  will  lay  you 
down,  and  have  done  with  you,  if  you  push  and  en 
croach.  Force  not  the  little  master  or  mistress  to  come 
and  kiss  the  gentleman,  as  if  the  salute  or  caress,  when 
not  voluntary,  had  value  for  your  courtesy  as  merchan 
dise  in  trade.  Let  the  gentleman  take  that  castle  him 
self,  if  he  can,  in  fair  truck  and  barter.  If  I  cannot  win 
your  babe  to  my  arms,  I  will  respect  its  freedom,  as  I 
would  the  affections  of  your  grown-up  daughter  or  son. 
The  doctrine  of  Natural  Religion  is  not  unchristian. 
Jesus  was  the  pre-eminent  specimen.  From  the  un 
folding  of  his  own  soul  came  all  his  wondrous  works 
and  words.  Had  he  been  anywhere  to  see  God  out 
of  his  bosom  ?  When  he  said,  Before  Abraham  ivas, 
I  am,  he  meant  no  pre-existence  you  do  not  share, 
only  you  are  not  inwardly  developed  to  perceive  it 
so  clear.  All  persons  are  convertible  into  equivalent 
glory,  if  not  into  whatever  he  was.  When  Lucy  Stone, 
in  the  riot,  told  her  friends  to  look  out  for  themselves, 
and  was  asked,  "  Who  will  protect  you?"  —  "This 
gentleman,"  she  answered,  turning  to  the  leader  of  the 
mob,  who  instantly  proved  as  good  as  her  word.  It  is 
the  touch  of  sunshine  that  makes  the  roughest  bud 
open.  Paul  was  hid  in  Saul  all  the  time.  Fickle 
Peter  was  not  misnamed  a  rock :  the  superficial  wave 
has  but  to  retire  to  disclose  the  granite  ledge  ;  and 
under  unstable  feeling  lies  unshakable  resolve.  To 
the  nature  within  nature  we  appeal.  In  a  graceful 
dancer  I  admired  the  flying  feet  that  struck  so  surely 
every  note  of  the  tune  which  flew  from  pipe  and  viol 
through  the  air,  with  pre-established  harmony  in  na 
ture  between  the  melodious  chords  and  those  of  the 


l68  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

human  frame.  Like  answer  in  our  spiritual  constitu 
tion  just  education  will  find  to  every  law  of  purity  and 
line  of  truth ;  and  we  shall  know  that  each  genuine 
sentiment  and  resentment  of  the  mind  has  its  part  in 
the  music,  and  is  a  string  in  that  harp,  made  of  living 
fibre,  which  the  angels  play. 

Nature,  to  our  meditation,  supplies  the  moral  that 
goes  with  the  fact.  With  this  power  we  must  be  on 
good  terms.  Nature  pardons  no  mistakes.  She  will 
not  give  me  an  inch  of  rope  or  hair-breadth  of  billow 
to  save  me  from  drowning  or  oversetting  in  my  boat. 
But  on  her  fidelity  we  can  depend.  Point  for  point,  to 
the  end  of  the  line,  it  will  answer  to  ours.  Her  pen 
alty  is  the  other  side  of  her  reward.  The  mechanic 
puts  his  board  to  the  circular  saw.  If  he  puts  his  arm, 
it  will  cut  that  just  as  well.  If  his  hand  is  caught  in 
the  wheel,  it  will  be  carried  round  as  swiftly  as  the 
strap.  The  car  will  crush  my  toe  on  the  rail  with  the 
same  coolness  and  iron  equanimity  as  it  does  the  boy's 
copper  cent.  The  Almighty's  buckler  is  for  his  chil 
dren's  defence  ;  but  they  must  not  rush  on  its  thick 
bosses  themselves.  Had  there  never  been  a  line  of 
Holy  Writ,  Nature  would  have  hinted  obedience  of  her 
laws,  with  every  child's  finger  that  went  into  the  flame, 
or  moth  that  hovered  about  a  lamp,  or  flood  that  came 
and  wind  that  blew  and  beat  upon  the  house ;  with 
every  spring  freshet  or  lava-stream  that  tore  up  the 
fields  and  burnt  or  bore  the  villages  off,  a  teacher  of 
Theology. 


VII. 

MATERIALISM. 

WHAT  is  the  starting-point?  "  In  the  beginning 
God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth."  But 
the  materialist  says,  In  the  beginning  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  created  God,  or  the  idea  of  God  in  the  human 
mind ;  having  first  created  the  mind  capable  of  that 
idea,  fancy,  or  fact.  But  derivation  from  dust  is  a 
theory  that  disposes  of  no  metaphysical  difficulty.  In 
an  ever-changing  universe,  something  must  self-exist. 
Is  or  has  matter  any  self?  In  the  play  of  Ruy.  Bias, 
the  hero  bursts,  in  a  closing  scene,  into  the  warning 
cry,  "  I  am  here  !  "  Out  of  no  act  of  this  mighty  play 
of  the  world  can  the  /  be  kept.  To  no  after-piece  can 
it  be  postponed  :  it  is  an  impossible  feat  for  any  Ro 
man  Lucretius  or  French  Encyclopaedist.  An  Infi 
nite  Self,  root  of  every  other,  appears  with  the  first 
motion  of  curiosity,  runs  like  the  ghost  under  the 
platform,  reappears  at  every  point,  —  a  giant  that  car 
ries  us  all  the  time,  a  spy  we  never  escape,  a  sapper 
and  miner  of  whatever  godless  hypothesis  we  build. 
Does  the  traveller  go  on  foot,  this  has  outstripped  him 
by  rail ;  does  he  run  post-haste,  this,  like  the  telegraph 
after  the  thief,  has  sped  with  the  lightning ;  does  he 
drive  his  stakes  in  the  wilderness,  he  wakes  up  mor- 


I7O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

tified  with  this  pioneer  ahead.  The  Romans  were 
right  to  make  Terminus  itself  a  god,  and  our  poet  is 
right  with  his  "god  of  bounds."  It  is  a  contradiction 
to  talk  of  any  bound  of  God. 

In  this  almanac  of  Nature,  what  is  the  date  ?  We 
cannot,  without  a  sense  of  absurdity,  date  mind  from 
matter.  An  inmost  sentiment,  deeper  than  sense, 
stronger  than  logic,  wider  than  what  we  observe,  and 
higher  than  all  we  understand,  forces  us  to  date  matter 
from  mind.  The  masters  of  wisdom,  Plato  and  Aris 
totle  and  Spinoza,  join  in  this  verdict  with  the  chiefs 
of  inspiration,  Moses  and  Job,  Jesus  and  Paul.  Your 
primordial  atom  assumes  order  and  an  Ordainer ; 
your  protoplasm  implies  a  Protoplast  and  plastic  art, 
an  Architect  of  the  many-chambered  house,  a  First  in 
cluding  the  many,  and  a  Self-motion  without  which  is 
no  motion  ;  your  substance,  One  that  stands  under  and 
holds  up  ;  your  conscience,  a  Detective  pursuing  us 
from  the  trees  of  the  garden  through  every  web  of 
sophistry  or  thicket  of  shame. 

Matter  is  multitude,  which  it  is  preposterous  to  put 
for  the  original  term  and  make  the  parent  of  unity, 
instead  of  the  result.  What  is  the  depositor  but  the 
soul,  from  which  all  this  fund  or  bank  of  particles  pro 
ceeds,  and  by  which  it  is  held,  something  it  dropped 
by  the  way  and  shall  resume  at  will,  like  cast-oft' 
clothes  or  an  old  manuscript,  to  go  through  the  mill 
again?  Matter  is  the  mind's  decayed  self,  buried  for 
a  while,  and  awaiting  a  resurrection.  All  this  scene 
of  visible  glory  is  but  a  receiving-tomb.  Lower  life 
is  the  sepulchre  of  worn-out  higher,  with  angels  at  the 
door  to  blow  the  wakening  trump,  at  which  the  rock 


MATERIALISM.  171 

itself  shall  rise  to  consciousness,  the  clod  clap  on 
wings,  and  lost  spirits  learn  hell  is  but  a  way  back  to 
heaven. 

You  are  sure  of  matter?  But  who  are  you,  and 
what  is  it  to  be  sure  ;  or  what  is  matter  sure  of?  The 
physicist  despises  superstition  and  idolatry,  but  talks 
of  our  origin  in  the  elements.  What  idolatry  so  deep, 
superstition  so  stubborn,  polytheism  so  manifold,  or 
pantheon  so  wide  !  Deification  of  the  elements  as 
factors  of  whatever  is  called  God  or  man  ?  Give  us 
back  Jove  and  Juno,  Mars  and  Minerva,  Vulcan 
and  Venus,  for  better  deities.  Let  us  study  religion 
with  Homer  for  our  text-book,  as  nearer  the  truth 
than  the  senseless  atoms.  If  the  elements  are  more 
than  instruments,  let  the  carpenter  be  made  by  his 
tools,  the  painter  by  his  paint,  the  chemist  by  the  gases 
he  combines  in  his  retorts.  If  we  shrink,  with  the  old 
sufferer,  from  saying  to  corruption,  "  Thou  art  my 
father,"  and  to  the  worm,  "  Thou  art  my  mother  and 
my  sister,"  it  is  a  noble  hesitance.  We  subordinate 
our  Author  to  ashes  in  subordinating  ourselves.  To 
make  the  first  term  countless  is  like  making  the  vari 
ations  precede  the  tune,  and  the  accompaniment  prior 
to  the  player.  A  lifeless  womb  of  life  is  unthinkable. 
The  gem  is  not  made  by  the  rock  that  imbeds  it,  nor 
the  flower  by  the  soil  it  grows  in  ;  and  the  phrase 
spontaneous  generation  is  a  figure  drawn  from  choice. 
There  was  a  mother  of  the  matrix  we  were  shaped  in, 
and  hewer  of  the  rock  from  which  we  were  hewn. 
The  wonderful  Person  contains  road  and  sky,  is  at  the 
goal  and  the  outset,  stands  for  the  post  and  slips  in 
behind  the  limit,  and  constrains  us  to  conclude  as  we 


172  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

commence.  Matter  may  be  our  nursery  ;  but  who  is 
our  nurse  ?  Matter  is  but  the  door  of  invisible  force, 
lying  always  in  fineness,  not  in  gross  bulk.  Are  the 
subtilties  made  of  the  masses  which  they  toss?  Are 
light,  heat,  electricity,  magnetism,  product  of  some 
creative  crucible?  The  composition  is  the  clod.  A 
French  chemist  reduces  all  not  to  atoms,  but  to  atom 
icities,  or  active  powers,  —  shall  we  say,  to  One  Atomi 
city,  whose  name  we  dare  not  speak?  The  materialist 
starts  from  the  particles,  and  gets  into  the  presence- 
chamber  of  the  King.  Encourage  him  on  his  way. 
Give  materialism  rope  enough,  perfect  liberty,  and  it 
will  hang  itself.  It  thinks  to  commit  murder,  and 
commits  suicide. 

Yet  physical  philosophy  is  not  without  benefit.  It 
has  made  the  wordy  Sahara  of  metaphysics  green  and 
fruitful.  Into  the  void  of  abstractions  it  puts  form  and 
color,  a  language  clear  and  picturesque.  Let  us  give 
thanks  for  its  portfolio  of  sketches  of  the  actual  world. 
This  earth  is  so  fair,  I  reserve  my  opinion  if  heaven 
be  better.  I  take  not  the  preacher's  assertion.  Let 
me  pause  before  this  picture.  Hurry  me  not  with 
premature  descriptions  of  the  next.  There  are  mo 
ments  of  visible  revelation,  when  life  is  unmixed  bless 
ing,  the  cup  is  full,  time  disappears  in  eternity,  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  calamity,  the  soul  is  content  and 
asks  no  more  of  God.  A  gleam  of  glory  from  the 
unveiled  constitution  of  things  sets  the  gate  of  paradise 
at  our  steps.  We  see  death  as  the  last  scud  of  vapor 
that  flits  away.  God  makes  his  garment  of  matter  so 
fine  we  little  children  can  only  clutch  and  gaze. 

Materialism  humbles,  too,  our  pretensions  of  a  sepa- 


MATERIALISM.  173 

rate  nature.  A  Hebrew  scorn  of  animals,  founded  on  a 
notion  of  their  inferior  origin,  and  existence  for  man's 
use,  infected  the  Christian  teachers,  though  not  Jesus 
himself.  To  the  naturalist,  more  than  to  the  theolo 
gian,  we  owe  the  growing  interest  in  their  welfare. 
It  is  the  crown  of  civilization  to  apply  the  word  hu 
manity  to  a  kindly  treatment  of  every  lower  tribe. 
What  but  the  science  we  condemn  has  taught  us  that 
this  is  no  figure  of  speech  or  act  of  grace,  but  simple 
justice  to  creatures  of  the  same  dust  as  ourselves? 
Zeal  to  gather  specimens  may  sometimes  be  cruel, 
and  the  eager  pathologist  pursue  sharply  the  homol- 
ogies  of  structure  and  function.  But  a  new  sentiment 
is  making  the  knife  relent :  the  pinning  and  vivisec 
tion  once  so  remorseless  now  submit  to  the  law  of 
economy  of  pain.  In  regard  to  human  beings  too, 
materialism  proclaims  equality.  It  is  no  autocrat  or 
aristocrat,  but  democrat.  It  shows  one  womb  and 
cradle  for  all  men.  A  narrow  spiritualism,  regarding 
the  soul  as  not  a  flower  or  outgrowth,  but  seolian 
attachment  of  the  body,  allowed  cruel  diversities 
among  men.  The  Church  suffers  from  its  fancy  of 
gifts  in  one,  impossible  to  another,  carried  in  the  case 
of  Jesus  to  the  extent  of  miraculous  generation  and 
introduction  to  the  world.  But  for  him  God  would 
not  love  or  save  the  rest  of  the  house.  The  other 
members  of  the  family  have  sinned  past  cure.  The 
case  is  gone  by  default :  the  sword  is  unsheathed,  and 
the  throne  burns  with  devouring  wrath.  But  if  this 
dear  Son  will  bow  to  the  stroke,  and  sprinkle  his  blood 
in  the  flame  of  that  almighty  forge,  restoration  to  favor 
may  be  had  !  Such  gratuity  at  another's  instance  and 


1^4  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

intercession,  I  decline.  If  God  will  not  love  me  for 
my  own  sake,  I  will  not  be  loved.  If  he  hates  my 
nature,  let  him  hate.  If,  says  Mr.  Mill,  I  must  go  to 
hell  on  any  ground  that  goodness  in  God  or  man  is  not 
the  same,  to  hell  I  will  go  !  Would  you  have  your  father 
or  mother  embrace  you  for  your  brother's  or  sister's 
sake  ?  Could  you  accept  the  affection  tendered  you  on 
account  of  an  older  child  or  first-born?  This  primo 
geniture  is  no  better  in  one  place  than  another.  An 
iniquity  on  earth,  it  is  no  magnanimity  in  heaven. 
We  want  a  generous  Father,  or  let  us  have  none. 
Christ  died  for  me?  I  would  die  for  him.  He  were 
worth  dying  for.  If  he  died  for  us,  it  was  because 
God  saw  that  we  were  not  worthless,  but  worthy. 
We  want  no  sacrifice  but  of  our  own  kind.  If  it  was 
not  my  blood  that  flowed  on  the  cross,  it  has  no  virtue 
for  my  sin.  It  was  a  drop  of  the  circulation  of  the 
race,  and  therein  its  power  to  redeem. 

With  the  eternal  All-mover,  atom  or  immensity  is 
the  same.  He  is  weigher  and  gauger  of  his  own  sub 
stance  and  dimensions.  The  number  of  his  meters  is 
the  note  of  his  infinity.  The  hand  raised  in  prayer  or 
stretched  for  help  is  more  continent  of  him  than  the 
heavens.  Omnipresence  which  the  materialist  admits 
is  only  mechanical  extent.  But  piety  makes  the  lowly 
heart  larger  than  the  sky.  "  God  is  everywhere,"  said 
the  Sunday-school  teacher.  "Is  he  in  this  room?" 
asked  the  little  boy.  "  Yes."  —  "  In  my  desk?"  — 
"  Certainly."  —  "  In  my  hat  ?  "  —  "  No  doubt."  —  "  In 
my  pocket?"—  "Of  course."  —  "No,  he  isn't:  I 
haven't  got  any  !  "  God's  presence  is  co-equal  with  the 
sense  of  it.  The  materialist's  experiment  of  the  end- 


MATERIALISM.  1 75 

less  subdivision  of  matter  —  observes  our  metaphysician, 
Mr.  Harris  —  resembles  travelling  in  a  circle  with  the 
hope  of  some  time  coming  to  an  end.  Is  not  material 
multiplication,  to  reach  the  immeasurable,  nonsense  as 
sheer?  Materialism  is  a  counterfeit  depth,  and  atones 
for  being  shallow  only  by  being  obscure.  Its  pro 
fessors  complain  of  metaphysical  abstractions.  They 
substitute  physical  ones.  The  definitions  of  Spencer 
are  more  prolix  and  less  satisfying  than  the  categories 
of  Kant.  Nothing  but  confusion  can  come  from  mak 
ing  things  procreators  of  thought.  Without  parentage 
and  rule  of  mental  conception,  they  are  starving  or 
phans,  masterless  steeds.  In  materialism  is  no  rest, 
but  endless  chase,  that  brings  no  game  to  cover.  It  is 
the  wild  huntsman  blowing  a  ghostly  horn  in  a  barren 
pursuit.  But  spirituality  is  peace.  It  finds  the  weight 
and  specific  gravity  more  truly  than  did  the  old  philos 
opher  in  his  bath. 

It  makes  a  difference  to  have  the  centre  of  gravity 
fall  within  or  without.  They  who  seek  external  foot 
hold  for  the  soul  remind  us  of  the  toy  whose  perpetual 
attempt  to  recover  its  erectness  is  the  amusement  of  the 
child.  "  Discontent  is  immortality."  But  it  is  not  a 
famishing  discontent.  "  Prone  to  action  and  to  rest," 
says  Pascal,  "  through  action  we  seek  rest."  Blessed 
constitution,  without  which  the  apple  would  not  have 
been  eaten,  or  the  fenced  garden  forsaken  for  the  world, 
made  so  wide,  as  Goethe  says,  on  purpose  for  our  wan 
dering  !  Man  would  have  been  satisfied  to  vegetate 
and  rot  where  he  was  born.  The  poise  of  the  other 
hemisphere  was  wanted  by  the  Genoese  sailor  as  well 
as  by  the  globe.  By  every  discoverer,  North  or  South, 


1^6  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  same  momentum  has  been  felt.  Finding  the  fate 
of  Sir  John  Franklin,  the  explorer  traverses  himself. 
Captain  Hall,  in  The  Polaris,  searches  for  the  counter 
part  of  a  map  on  some  inward  membrane.  The  stu 
dent  of  geography  or  of  the  animated  kingdoms  lays 
out  the  metes  and  bounds  of  his  own  nature.  Self- 
knowledge  is  the  aim  of  his  knowledge  of  animals  and 
plants.  The  physicist  goes  round  about  the  problem 
which  the  metaphysician  directly  grasps.  Naturalist 
and  supernaturalist  would  tell  the  bounds  of  God's 
acre  with  diverse  method,  each  with  his  own  rod  and 
chain.  The  only  question  is  if  there  be  any  Owner  of 
the  field,  or  the  world  is  a  wild  lot  with  no  claim. 
Marvellous  canvas  which  no  pencil  ever  touched,  and 
a  stranger  set  of  cartoons  than  in  any  Vatican,  with  new 
sketches  in  numberless  slides !  Whoever  finds  the 
problem  easier  so  may  be  congratulated,  as  a  child  put 
off  with  empty  promise.  In  Scott's  novel,  the  lad 
begged  the  lady  to  give  him  silver,  the  only  money  he 
was  acquainted  with,  and  declined  her  gold. 

A  thoughtless  observation  stops  with  the  exterior. 
No  personality  is  no  origin  and  no  destiny.  Who  is 
there  to  be  immortal?  Whom  go  to?  Why  so  fool 
ish  to  try  to  put  our  foot  beyond  the  border,  break  the 
hedge,  or  hang  over  the  precipice  where  is  no  support 
but  empty  space,  or  climb  above  the  top  of  our  tree  of 
life,  unless  there  be  indeed  a  path  the  vulture's  eye 
hath  not  seen?  On  this  point  Idealism  and  Material 
ism  once  shook  hands.  It  was  a  singular  meeting  of 
extremes,  stranger  than  when  Herod  and  Pilate  became 
friends.  But  the  permanent  position  of  the  material 
school  was  with  Idealism  a  temporary  phase.  To 


MATERIALISM.  1^7 

reduce  all  to  unsympathetic  power,  tossing  out  this 
ephemeron  of  man,  to  keep  up  an  hour  like  the  stray 
butterfly  that  wearily  drops  drowning  in  the  tide,  is 
mean  and  disrespectful.  It  makes  the  universe  look 
poor,  a  conundrum  not  deserving  a  guess  ;  a  nest  of 
boxes,  with  much  pains  opened,  to  disclose  nothing  in 
the  last.  Contempt  of  the  Creator  and  of  his  creation 
comes  from  self-contempt.  The  miracle  of  his  glory 
is  to  beget  children,  as  Saturn  adorns  himself  with  his 
rings. 

Materialism  is  an  apology  for  ignorance.  It  has  but 
one  maxim,  that  everybody  is  devoured  by  the  Sphinx. 
It  is  celebration  of  surface  and  despair  of  knowledge. 
It  scoffs  at  the  deepest  sentiments  of  humanity,  by  drop 
ping  God  and  Heaven  as  fancies  or  whims.  But  he 
who  specifies  what  we  can  have  no  notion  of  has  some 
notion  of  it  himself.  Every  negative  is  a  positive. 
God  is  unknowable,  you  say.  Is  God  to  you  but  a 
word  ?  What  business,  then,  have  you  to  say  about  him 
so  much  ?  It  is  saying  a  great  deal,  to  affirm  he  has 
no  inventory  or  manifest,  and  is  inferior  to  any  house 
holder  or  master  of  a  ship.  You  have  no  right  nor  title 
to  say  you  know  nothing  of  what  you  know  nothing. 
The  subject  to  you  does  not  exist.  The  materialist  has 
no  account  to  offer  of  Nature  or  man  :  only  that  the 
particles  in  one  arrangement  present  beauty  in  form 
and  color,  without  life  ;  in  another,  unconscious  organs  ; 
in  a  third,  creatures  deceived  with  an  imagination  that 
they  are  not  machines.  What  is  the  imagination,  that 
inner  eye  ?  From  him  no  reply  ;  but  that  the  atoms  in 
one  collocation  digest,  in  a  second  secrete,  in  a  third 
assimilate,  in  a  fourth  feel,  or  reason,  or  love,  or  illu 
sively  appear  to  will. 

12 


178  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Materialism  climbs  over  the  sides  of  the  pyramid,  or 
sits  akimbo  on  its  top,  but  explores  not  the  interior, 
and  denies  it  has  any  door.  It  is  a  spy  reporting  the 
nakedness  of  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  On 
the  materialist's  chart,  the  whole  spiritual  region,  like 
one  point  of  the  globe,  is  put  down  as  "  No  man's  land." 

What  of  any  interest  or  importance  in  human  life 
can  he  explain  ?  A  certain  multiple  of  those  elements, 
his  only  counters,  composes  a  round  stolid  mass,  wheel 
ing  eternally  dumb  through  the  sky.  A  few  of  them, 
otherwise  disposed,  form  a  human  figure  that  sees  and 
speaks,  sparkles  with  genius  or  glows  with  desire,  and 
sends  shocks  of  affection  through  another  with  which 
it  has  a  deeper  than  chemical  affinity ;  or  thrills  us 
with  combinations  of  argument  and  imagery,  never 
heard  of  on  the  planet  before  and  making  all  things 
new.  One  of  these  shapes,  with  its  few  score  pounds 
avoirdupois  of  flesh  and  blood,  we  call  Moses  ;  another, 
Caesar,  Isaiah,  Shakspeare,  Christ.  But  law-giver, 
commander,  poet,  prophet,  redeemer,  or  saint,  comes 
out  of  the  retort  according  as  the  atoms  are  mixed, 
and  the  blind  fingers  sift !  Such  a  theory  is  too  great  a 
demand  on  the  faith  which  materialists  despise.  My 
credulity  is  great ;  but,  like  a  millionnaire  in  the  city 
angry  with  the  assessors,  it  refuses  to  pay  so  enormous 
a  tax.  How  cheaply  the  unspiritual  theory  appraises 
those  quick  faculties  of  my  friend,  the  nimble-tongued 
woman,  that  never  fail  in  any  jet  of  talk  to  deliver  to 
my  prosing  dulness  something  fresh  !  Can  the  quality 
of  that  young  maiden,  who  just  left  my  board,  -be 
analyzed  ?  Can  that  purity,  untouched  and  intangible 
by  aught  evil,  be  convicted  as  an  outcome  of  the  soil? 


MATERIALISM.  179 

From  these  novel  speculations,  we  learn  that  conscience 
is  no  voice  of  God  or  communion  with  rectitude,  but 
calculation.  Utility  transformed  makes  that  angel  of 
light ;  and  self-interest  is  the  wonder-worker  that  turns 
out  self-sacrifice  from  its  lathe,  projects  every  passage 
of  devotion,  and  casts  every  scene  of  heroism  in  the 
whole  history  and  long  tragedy  of  mankind.  The  iron 
selfishness,  which  some  alchemy  contrives  to  convert 
into  the  gold  of  disinterested  deeds,  is  itself  transmuted 
clay.  I  can  read  Hebrew  from  right  to  left,  but  not 
spell  creation  with  this  alphabet.  I  cannot  get  one 
from  many,  but  the  many  from  the  one.  Where  is 
that  One?  as  Philip  asked  Jesus  :  point  him  out !  He 
is  the  artist  that  does  not  thrust  himself  into  his  work. 
I  went  into  a  studio  and  admired  the  sketches,  in  char 
coal  and  water-colors,  that  lined  the  walls.  But  where 
was  the  friend  that  drew  these  fac-similes  so  lively  of 
the  house  and  headland,  the  boat  and  the  bay?  No 
sign  of  palette  or  easel,  painter  or  brush,  anywhere  to 
be  seen  !  The  design  so  exquisite,  the  skill  so  perfect, 
the  tints  so  true,  and  every  shape  solid  in  this  re-crea 
tion  of  Nature  ;  but  the  hand  withdrawn  ?  Room  for 
all  to  appear  to  advantage  but  the  one  that  did  it  all. 
For  her  no  nook  nor  corner  where  I  could  conceive  she 
was  bestowed !  Shall  we  doubt  the  First  Artist  is, 
because  he  nowhere  draws  himself? 

We  cannot  separate  motion  from  will,  mobilization 
of  an  army  from  the  general,  or  of  the  funds  from  a 
financier.  The  wires  of  the  electric  cable  are  not 
wrapped  closer  than  this  faith.  An  English  authority 
affirms  it  as  an  indisputable  axiom  of  science  that  life 
comes  only  from  life,  never  from  death.  But  life  is  in- 


l8o  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

distinguishable  from  movement ;  and  who  has  reached 
the  limits  where  life  and  death  part?  Death  is  still 
and  cold  ;  and  how  stark  and  stiff  we  have  thought 
large  part  of  the  creation  !  Sepulchres  are  hewn  in 
the  rock,  whose  helpless  mass  seems  fit  enclosure  of 
the  corse  that  shall  leap  or  walk  no  more.  But  motion 
is  no  absentee  from  the  stone.  "  The  dance  of  death  " 
continues  in  what  we  consider  dead,  and  disproves 
death  with  rhythm  the  unarmed  eye  cannot  see,  and  a 
music  of  spheres,  infinitely  smaller  than  the  orbs  Shak- 
speare  celebrated,  which  our  ears  cannot  hear.  A  finer 
procession  begins  where  the  funeral  ends,  and  ele 
mental  melodies  laugh  at  the  melancholy  dirge.  Tyn- 
dall's  thesis,  that  heat  is  a  mode  of  motion,  resolves 
the  universe.  The  figures  in  this  cotillon  are  appointed 
by  an  intelligence  identical  with  command.  There  is  a 
swarm  not  only  in  the  beehive  or  the  city  street.  Every 
wooden  block  is  occupied  and  spinning  under  the  feet 
that  seek  it  for  a  support.  The  sea  stretches  off  glassy 
and  treacherous,  as  a  place  for  unwary  mariners  to 
drown  and  die  in.  But  the  existence  that  sports  in 
its  huge  bosom  roughens  the  surface  with  schools  of 
fish  that  make  mimic  waves  on  its  swell,  and  spring 
out  for  a  moment,  with  the  universal  disposition  to 
break  bounds  into  the  air.  From  the  bald  eagle  that 
sailed  by  me  this  morning,  to  the  fly  I  discern  only  by 
his  pincers  on  the  back  of  my  hand,  is  no  interval  nor 
cessation  of  activity.  There  is  no  passive  voice  in  the 
world.  Patience  is  a  nobler  motion  than  any  deed. 
We  never  have  so  much  will  as  when  we  say,  Not 
mine.  There  is  no  stay.  We  must  up  and  on  :  the 
bed  or  chair  is  intolerable  unrest.  In  the  arena  is  ease  : 


MATERIALISM.  I  Si 

the  rising  sea  drives  me  from  the  seat  where  I  am 
writing  my  theme,  and  a  heaving  ocean  of  desire  lifts 
me  to  enterprise  and  accomplishment  ever  fresh.  My 
boat  is  tossed  and  tosses  me  ;  and  in  my  heart  is  a 
pulsation  chiming  with  my  oar,  a  jet  from  the  infinite 
pulse.  The  beat  in  my  wrist  refers  me  to  that  in  my 
breast.  To  what  does  that  refer  but  a  will  co-exten 
sive  with  wisdom  and  equivalent  to  love? 

I  sit  in  a  skiff  on  the  last  ebb  of  the  tide  :  the  min 
now  swims  through  the  transparency  below,  and  the  fly 
floats  through  that  above  ;  an  infant-crab  creeps,  and 
a  minute  flounder,  simulating  the  sand,  ploughs  on  the 
bottom,  while  a  horse-shoe  steers  along  with  his  rud 
der  of  horny  tail ;  bits  of  eel-grass  glide  with  their 
shadows ;  the  long  sea-weed  waves  on  the  surface  in 
the  wind,  its  glittering  tips  casting  down  prismatic 
tints,  spots  of  rainbow  that  move  over  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  which  is  pierced  with  little  holes  through 
which  the  clams  suck,  and  breathe  back  with  bubbles 
that  ever  rise  and  break  without  noise  ;  the  drift  of 
clouds  overhead  is  reflected  in  the  mirror  under  foot ; 
a  slight  ripple  glances  the  last  subdivision  of  the  ocean- 
swell  that  lifts  my  little  vessel  softlier  than  a  babe  on 
the  mother's  breast ;  the  surf  a  mile  away  tumbles  on 
the  rocks,  beyond  my  island  break-water,  with  a  force 
no  frigate  could. resist.  And  all  this  on  a  morning  as 
gentle  as  ever  shone.  No  will  nor  meaning,  says  the 
materialist,  in  the  whole  !  Then  how  prolific  is  igno 
rance,  and  what  a  busybody  death  ! 

How  much  motion  is  represented,  beside  what  is 
seen  !  The  wave  rises  and  washes  some  invisible  par 
ticles  from  the  cliff.  But  what  imponderable  tons  in 


1 82  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

unredeemable  ages  have  been  washed  from  every 
promontory  and  ragged  seam !  The  rude  sculptor 
of  the  sea,  shouldering  to  his  work,  chips  finer  than 
any  chisel  an  atom  at  a  time,  smoothing  into  what 
beauty,  carving  with  what  grandeur,  the  mighty  block  ! 
The  green  tongue  of  land  that  divides  the  quiet  bay 
from  the  stormy  deep  has  been  moulded  into  curves 
passing  any  mathematics  to  compute.  Yet  all  the 
tendency  to  this  exquisite  result  is  without  intent ! 
We  are  not  able  or  allowed  to  spell  a  syllable  in  the 
volume  that  has  no  preface  or  finis.  We  are  looking 
over  an  album  in  which  no  photographer  had  a  hand. 
We  are  walking  through  a  crystal  palace  whose  pillars 
were  set  with  no  plumb-line  ;  and  it  required  no  eye 
in  the  making  of  what  we  behold  !  But  will  is  power 
knowing  what  it  is  about,  whoever  may  please  to 
esteem  himself  accident  or  resultant  of  a  blind  force, 
that  cannot,  like  the  Cyclops,  even  feel  round.  Through 
countless  variety  all  the  cogs  are  carried  with  one  wheel. 
The  strength  that  raises  a  child's  finger  rolls  the  bil 
low  and  the  orb  ;  and  the  hydrostatic  paradox  is  wher 
ever  Infinity  is  balanced  by  a  drop. 

Spirit  cannot  be  parted  from  matter.  We  worship 
God  as  Spirit ;  but  we  cannot  conceive  him  out  of 
Nature.  No  more  can  we  so  conceive  the  human  soul 
unclothed,  but,  as  Paul  said,  clothed  upon.  Hence 
the  difficulty  always  felt  of  imagining  immortality 
without  the  body.  So  for  their  dead  kings  the  Egyp 
tians  built,  in  the  Pyramids,  houses  more  splendid 
than  any  palace,  and  embalmed  the  flesh.  Was  theirs 
a  superstition  of  which  we  are  rid?  There  is,  in 
Greenwood  Cemetery,  a  mausoleum  of  such  cost  that 


MATERIALISM.  183 

the  fortune  intended  for  the  occupant  is  inherited  by 
her  dust ;  and  a  Greek  temple  in  Mount  Auburn 
casts  into  the  shade  with  its  beauty  many  a  country 
church.  Our  horror  of  the  resurrectionist  arises 
from  our  superstition  of  a  resurrection.  The  good 
Boston  doctor,  who  bequeathed  his  body  to  the  dis 
sector's  knife,  doubtless  had  been  annoyed  by  it.  When 
the  Indians  were  removed,  their  being  driven  from  the 
graves  of  their  fathers  was  the  peculiar  aggravation 
of  cruelty  on  which  Congressional  orators  dwelt  with 
a  pathos  it  was  poetical  to  think  the  roving  tribes  were 
conscious  of  themselves.  Yet  furniture  for  future  use, 
weapon  or  ornament,  was  put  into  the  warrior's  tomb  ; 
while  the  Chinaman,  after  his  California  toils  are  over, 
can  fancy  no  rest  for  his  remains  but  on  the  side  of 
the  globe  where  he  was  born.  The  resurrection  of 
the  body  —  a  spurious  phrase,  substituted  for  the  New- 
Testament  resurrection  of  the  dead  —  is  printed  in  all 
liturgies,  and  the  mortal  relics  committed  to  the  ground 
u  in  hope  of  a  general  resurrection  at  the  last  day."  Is 
it  possible  friends  suppose  these  dissolving  frames  will 
sprout  from  the  soil  or  be  mechanically  restored  ?  This 
gross  belief  is,  however,  not  without  ground.  It  is 
founded  on  an  idea  as  true  as  it  is  necessary,  —  that 
without  form  or  matter  spirit  is  lost ;  the  mistake  being 
that  this  identical  matter,  our  familiar  garment,  will  re 
cover  from  the  trance  of  death.  So  we  cannot  quite  give 
it  up.  In  my  neighborhood,  a  little  boy,  attempting 
to  bathe  in  a  race-way  of  the  ebbing  tide,  was  swept 
away  and  drowned,  —  Nature  herself  undertaking  to  be 
both  minister  and  service,  shroud  and  procession,  prayer 
and  dirge,  sexton  and  grave,  with  her  salt  caves  and 


184  •        RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

sounding  tides.  But  from  such  disposition  of  the  dear 
body  the  town  was  in  revolt.  Crowds  hung  along  the 
beach,  peered  into  the  channel  beneath  the  draw,  and 
put  forth  in  boats  to  hunt  it  up  out  of  its  wide  wander 
ing  sepulchre.  Field-pieces  were  brought  and  dis 
charged  from  the  deck  of  a  vessel  sailing  to  and  fro  in 
the  harbor,  hoping  by  the  concussion  to  start  the  morsel 
of  humanity  from  its  lurking-place  in  the  briny  ooze, 
so  wholesome  and  sweet.  Before  the  time  the  apostle 
names,  the  Sea  was  called  to  give  up  her  dead.  Was 
it  all  sympathy  with  the  afflicted,  otherwise  in  many 
ways  expressed  ?  Was  it  a  feeling  that  the  soul  could 
not  survive  the  loss  of  its  perishing  robe?  Did  it  hint 
the  lingering  strength  of  the  notion  that  associates  it 
so  indissolubly  with  its  habitual  form,  and  imply  a 
rational  view  that  its  projection  without  form  is  impos 
sible  to  conceive  ?  The  physicist  laughs  at  the  Romish 
or  Episcopal  official's  notion  of  perpetuated  flesh  ;  yet 
the  physicist  admits  no  individual  immortality  without 
a  reassembling  of  the  particles  we  are  each  one  com 
posed  of  now,  thus  meeting  the  ecclesiastic  in  the 
same  philosophy.  If  both  could  learn  a  human  per 
son's  independence  of  any  given  set  of  particles, 
neither  need  scorn  the  other ;  and  the  discovery  how 
delicately  the  threads  are  woven  in  Nature's  loom,  how 
her  strongest  is  her  finest  stuff,  and  how  she  hides  her 
everlasting  principles,  the  thunders  of  her  power,  in 
imperceptible  atoms,  and  not  in  bulk,  suggests  continu 
ance  in  safe  investment. 

The  whole  is  inseparable  from  the  one.  Materialism 
is  disintegration.  The  infinite  divisibility  of  matter  is 
an  axiom  in  mechanics:  is  its  infinite  multiplication 


MATERIALISM.  185 

an  account  of  the  universe?  An  Anti-Darwinian  said 
it  is  not  from  one,  but  an  ocean  of  germs.  But,  to  get 
the  one  out  of  many,  thought  labors  in  vain.  What  is 
the  whole  which  the  materialist  posits  as  greater  than 
any  Personality,  or  God?  It  is  the  general  impression 
of  the  world.  But  this  is  no  whole.  It  is  infinitesi 
mal  part.  To  talk  so  of  the  whole  is  absurd.  We 
say  we  see  the  earth,  ocean,  or  sky,  with  but  a  trifling 
arc  or  section  of  either  in  our  view.  When  a  traveller 
came  in  sight  of  Sebago  Pond,  wide  stretching  and 
ruffled  by  the  wind,  she  asked  if  it  were  not  the  Atlan 
tic.  We  say  Columbus  discovered  the  Western  hem 
isphere  in  an  outlying  island.  That  referred  to  the 
continent ;  the  continent,  to  the  globe  ;  the  globe,  to  the 
constellations,  swimming  in  immensity  like  mites  in 
the  waste  or  motes  in  the  air.  The  integrity  of  Nature 
cannot  be  reached  by  our  observation  or  generalizing. 
No  induction  of  particulars  or  deduction  of  logic  is  its 
measure.  It  is  Thing  of  pure  Thought.  Like  integrity 
of  character,  it  is  no  construction  of  distinct  portions, 
or  polyp-growth  resolvable  into  endless  individuals ; 
but  implies  simplicity  of  absolute  centre,  from  which 
all  the  virtues  radiate,  and  of  which  every  word  of 
wisdom  or  deed  of  goodness  is  a  beam.  The  man 
worthy  of  his  name  is  never  in  pieces  ;  is  not  many- 
sided,  but  circular,  meeting  you  with  one  line  of 
beauty  at  every  point.  God  is  the  sphere  in  which 
innumerable  circles,  great  or  small,  are  contained.  In 
every  earthly  inch  and  throughout  celestial  leagues  is 
one  uncontainable  Container,  reducing  countless  ob 
jects,  circumstances,  persons,  and  events  to  the  Being 
from  which  they  proceed.  For  Being  is  no  multiple, 
but  always  and  for  ever  One. 


1 86  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

But,  the  materialist  will  ask,  does  the  Spiritualist 
attain  to  unity?  Is  he  not  vagrant,  in  variety  beyond 
all  compass,  entangled  in  the  meshes  of  the  net  whose 
drag  we  cannot  escape  more  than  fish  can  the  seine  in 
the  stream?  Here  is  the  reply:  We  cannot  compre 
hend  or  imagine  the  Person  or  Unity  which  is  God, 
but  we  can  think  it.  Eternity,  Infinity,  is  our  Thought, 
though  like  the  peace  that  passeth  understanding,  or 
the  heaven  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  the 
heart  of  man  conceived.  My  identity  with  it  I  feel, 
but  cannot  describe.  Of  the  enthusiast  who  declared 
"I  am  God,"  it  was  said,  he  is  right,  though  the 
words  were  false  the  moment  they  left  his  mouth. 
Our  doctrine  admits  no  proof,  all  proof  being  less  cer 
tain  than  itself.  It  is  open  to  criticism  and  scorn, 
spite  of  which  it  will  not  cease  to  be  affirmed  and  to 
affirm  itself. 

We  cannot  explain  the  lowest  forms  of  life  by  im 
portation  of  properties  from  the  air  and  the  soil.  My 
friend  picks  up  in  the  pasture  a  red  berry  which  has  a 
pleasant  taste,  but  whether  it  be  poison  she  cannot 
tell.  Who  can  elucidate  the  difference  which  deter 
mines  the  flavor  of  an  apple  or  peach ;  or  of  meats, 
which  some  have  not  a  palate  keen  enough  to  distin 
guish  with  the  eyes  shut ;  or  of  wines,  for  which  a 
certain  judge  had  a  tongue  so  nice  as  to  detect  a  savor 
of  iron  from  a  key  having  been  dropped  into  the  cask  ? 
The  wisdom,  from  whose  herbarium  all  the  grasses 
came,  like  varieties  of  architecture  and  stuffs  of  the 
loom  from  the  master's  designs,  ordained  the  many- 
colored  orb  of  human  genius  to  outreach  all  the  pat 
terns  of  palaces  and  colors  of  woven  silk  and  wool. 


MATERIALISM.  187 

The  derivation  of  spirit  from  matter  implies  a  time 
when  spirit  was  not.  Some  lonely  little  vesicle  wan 
dered  in  the  void  womb  of  a  universe  !  When  I  can 
put  myself  into  my  own  crucible,  rake  myself  out  of 
the  ashes  of  my  own  furnace,  cut  myself  into  pieces, 
and  from  Medea's  kettle  recover  my  youth,  take  my 
perceptions  back  into  their  materials,  and  be  revivified 
from  elemental  dust,  I  may  expound  the  process  of 
creation  of  which  my  intuitions  and  imaginations  are 
the  end.  But  our  cradle  is  farther  off  than  our  tomb. 
It  were  easier  to  find  where  Moses  was  buried,  though 
no  man  knoweth  his  sepulchre  to  this  day,  than  where 
he  was  born,  if  by  birth  we  mean  that  by  which  Moses 
was  made  to  be  himself,  and  not  Aaron  or  Pharaoh. 
Our  knowledge  finds  everywhere  a  wall,  if  our  won 
der  do  not  turn  it  into  a  way  to  Infinity.  I  sit  in  a  vein 
of  trap-rock,  through  which  the  granite  has  been  eaten 
out  by  what  the  Greek  poet  called  the  foaming  tusks 
of  the  sea.  Midway  in  the  horizontal  shaft  the  once 
overhanging  cliff  has  fallen  to  fill  a  section  of  it  up. 
The  stone  has  disintegrated  into  soil,  and  in  the  soil 
vigorous  oaks  have  sprung  to  overtop  the  level  whence 
came  the  support  of  their  own  roots.  The  total  is 
beauty,  which  no  camel's  hair  pencil  with  all  the  pig 
ments  could  improve.  Give  me  the  methods,  material 
equivalents,  and  exact  time  required  for  the  picture  so 
as  to  leave  adoration  out,  and  I  will  set  you  then  the 
harder  problem  how  beauty  has  come  into  a  thought, 
a  character,  a  gesture,  a  gait  full  of  grace,  or  the  human 
face  divine,  with  no  intent  to  lift  our  eyes  above  the 
earthly  floor.  Is  matter  such  an  accomplished  posture- 
master  it  can  take  all  the  attitudes  of  perfection  and 


1 88  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

faultless    propriety   of    motion    unawares?     Delsarte 
would  generate  eloquence,  like  electricity  from  cushion 
and  cylinder,  by  a  study  of  the  language  of  facial  and 
bodily  expression,   to    every,  syllable   of  which    only 
passion   and  inspiration  first  gave  vent.     This  theory 
puts  artifice  for  art,  cuts  the  train  of  oratory  and  action 
from  the  locomotive  of  feeling,  would  conjure  things 
signified  out  of  their  signs,  subordinate  the  everlasting 
to  the  mechanical,  and  dispense  pulpit  and  rostrum 
from  the  need  of  any  inward  affection.     But  no  such 
juggle    can   create   truth.     We    cannot    extract    mind 
from  earth,  as  by  successive  processes  in  a  refinery  the 
black   juice  of   the   cane  becomes  white  as  wheaten 
flour.     Reason  is  absolute.     It  accepts  not  its  costume 
of  matter  for  its   creator,  any  more  than   would   the 
French  monarch  the  state  robes  which  Thackeray  in 
his  pen-sketch  sets  up  for  his  royal  self.     The  marble 
mountains  of  Carrara  move   not  out  of  the  sceptic's 
way  for  any  dispute  or  ignorance  of  their  origin  ;  and 
the  moral  sense  is  so  positive  that  from  all  speculation 
Kant  retreated  on  it  for  fundamental  trust,  like  Wel 
lington  on   the   Torres  Vedras  from  the   open   field. 
How  selfish  utility  mounted  into  spiritual  tenderness 
and  strength  would  puzzle  Minerva  to  tell.     "  I  cannot 
allow  myself,"  said  a  man,  "to  eat  a  pear  by  myself: 
I  have  to  carry  it  home."     Who  told  Theodore  Parker 
not  to  kill  the  little  spotted  turtle  basking  by  the  brook? 
Ezra  S.  Gannett  would  not  let  me  have  my  newspaper 
back  till  he  had  folded  it  precisely  as  he  took  it  from 
my  hand  !     I  sit  among  the  rocks  before  the  spectacle 
of  the  sea  that  rolls  and  breaks  in  thunder  at  my  feet. 
In  no  other  way  is  sublimity  brought  so  near.     But 


MATERIALISM.  189 

why  am  I  uneasy  and  discontent?  Why  not  abide  and 
enjoy  the  marvellous  scene,  letting  the  day  pass,  and 
Time  shake  his  hour-glass  as  he  will,  while  such  luxury 
of  the  imagination,  beyond  all  feasting,  is  mine?  Be 
cause  I  am  alone,  and  my  companion  is  needful  to 
perfect  my  delight.  You  say  it  is  an  elixir  of  utilities  ; 
it  is  the  compound  interest  of  selfishness ;  it  is  a  divi 
dend  on  the  policy  of  mankind :  but  that  the  main 
chance  were  susceptible  of  such  gradation,  and  brute 
appetite  could  graduate  humanity  like  a  lily  from  the 
mud,  we  should  all  have  been  a  pack  of  gluttons  and 
thieves !  I  decline  this  origin  of  glory.  I  will  find  in 
no  such  dross  the  making  of  my  heavenly  crown. 

In  all  nobility  is  an  unborrowed  charm.  A  child  of 
five  summers  takes  my  case  in  hand  for  counsel  from 
her  curly  head,  and  warns  me  not  to  stand  on  the  plat 
form  or  jump  from  the  moving  cars.  What  concern 
has  the  little  maiden  in  my  hoary  head  and  nearly 
spent  life?  Has  she  calculated  the  account  of  profit 
and  loss  in  my  departure  or  longer  stay?  Is  not  the 
gentle  disapproval  of  my  rashness  part  of  a  generous 
instinct  which  comes  out  to  touch  me  more  in  the 
sober  smile  than  in  the  monitory  word?  I  should  as 
easily  suspect  a  miserly  computation  in  the  motherly 
hen's  scratching  for  her  brood  close  by.  The  abysses 
of  the  sea  are  beneath  those  white  caps  blown  up  by 
the  south  wind  ;  and  from  more  fathomless  deeps  of 
the  human  bosom  rises  every  spell  of  honor  and 
truth. 

/  am  positive,  says  some  reporter,  in  whom  we  may 
mistrust  some  mixture  of  will  with  knowledge.  But 
the  will  which  positivism,  materialism,  phrenology, 


190  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

and  the  metaphysics  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  not  know 
ing  what  to  do  with  and  unable  to  explain  it,  unani 
mously  deny,  declines  to  leave  the  lexicon  or  the  world. 
We  make  a  convert  of  the  man  ;  but  the  will  is  not 
convertible  into  any  particular  motive.  If  it  would 
only  confess  itself  to  be  a  sequence,  a  link  in  the  chain, 
no  cause,  but  one  of  an  endless  row  of  effects,  how 
well  we  should  comprehend  it;  and  in  our  philosophi 
cal  cabinet  lay  it  as  a  labelled  specimen  on  the  shelf! 
But  it  declares  itself  to  be  more  than  intelligence. 
It  testifies  not  that  it  has,  but  is  motive.  In  a  saint, 
like  Jesus,  it  declares  itself  part  of  the  will  of  God, 
as  it  must  be  in  every  man,  who  is  his  child,  in  every 
filial  act ;  for  this  unscientific,  wilful  veto  on  the  will 
cannot  stop  with  human  nature,  but  must  defy  the 
Divinity.  If  the  universe  have  a  throne,  and  be  not 
an  automaton,  freedom  is  the  birthright  of  man. 

But  how  get  from  our  idea  of  God  to  the  fact? 
We  deny  the  chasm  !  As  there  is  no  void  in  Nature, 
but  the  opposite  banks  that  frown  at  each  other  are 
united  by  space  and  air  and  magnetic  circuits  as  closely 
as  by  timber  and  steel  at  the  St.  Lawrence  River  or  the 
Menai  Straits,  so  subject  and  object  cannot  be  severed. 
Some  identity  makes  them  one.  "  Know  thyself"  is 
a  profound  proverb,  because  self-knowledge  is  the 
knowledge  of  God.  The  prodigal  came  to  his  father 
when  he  came  to  himself.  No  absence  of  God  where 
is  a  man,  or  of  man  where  is  a  God  !  The  same  im 
mense,  positive,  universal  Root  abolishes  all  but  sur 
face  difference,  and  allows  no  negative.  Life  is  the 
fact ;  and  death,  the  shadow  it  appears  to  cast,  is  part 
of  itself,  the  ghost  of  life,  as  all  apparitions  are  shades. 


MATERIALISM.  19! 

There  is  a  doom  on  every  scheme  of  pure  criticism. 
Not  by  counter-criticism,  but  want  of  vitality,  will  it 
fall,  as  trees  said  to  be  winter-killed  perish  of  the 
summer-drought  that  has  drained  their  sap.  As  in 
morals,  so  in  the  intellect,  the  worst  fault  is  fault-find 
ing.  A  strong  organism  insures  longevity.  I  saw  a 
prostrate  trunk,  half-rooted  in  the  ledge  and  soil,  each 
branch  of  which  on  the  upper  side  had  made  a  soil  of 
the  parent-bole,  and  shot  up  into  a  perfect  tree  with 
boughs  and  sprays  of  its  own.  Any  thing  is  possible 
to  bountiful  being,  to  amplitude  of  soul.  But  the  poor 
and  juiceless  denier,  subsisting  by  attack,  like  the 
mosquito  on  the  blood  of  its  victims,  leads  a  precari 
ous  life,  and  will  soon  be  blown  away  by  the  wind  in 
some  little  heap  of  his  fellows  as  useless  as  himself. 

But  must  we  not  define,  stake  out  our  roads  and 
bounds  of  our  dwellings,  and  have  gates  not  only  to 
open,  but  shut?  "  We  cannot  live,"  cries  the  conserva 
tive,  "  out  of  doors."  We  may  well  consider  if  we  do 
not  live  too  much  in  doors  for  our  virtue  and  our 
health !  Has  the  close  air  of  churches  any  better 
quality  than  that  of  other  houses  or  shops  ?  To  what, 
asked  my  friend,  do  you  owe  your  recovery?  To  per 
petual  open  air,  I  replied.  Air,  light,  water,  earth, 
the  four  elements  with  their  ever-flowing  magnetism, 
the  only  medicine-chest  from  which  I  have  got  any 
good.  All  close  communion  is  unwholesome.  Camp 
of  Indian,  haunt  of  Bohemian,  wandering  of  gypsy, 
are  more  salubrious.  I  grudge  every  hour  frost  and 
storm  drive  me  in  from  the  roof  where  — 

"  Tenderly  the  haughty  Day 
Fills  his  blue  urn  with  fire  ;  " 


192  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

or  "  fretted  with  other  golden  fires  "  at  night.  "  I  call 
this  going  in,  not  out,"  said  Edward  Everett  when  he 
walked  abroad.  We  need  ecclesiastical  ventilation. 
When  the  lamps  burned  low  in  the  North-End  meet 
ing,  and  the  oil  was  complained  of,  the  merchant  told 
the  worshippers  to  find  the  difficulty  in  their  deoxy- 
genizing  breath.  Was  the  atmosphere  any  better  for 
the  mind  ?  But  the  old  confinement  has  given  way  to 
a  gracious  allowance,  in  some  quarters,  that  we  can 
worship  in  the  woods.  Thank  God  for  this  big  play 
ground  for  his  children's  recess  !  Not  a  few  roods  of 
land  in  Boston  or  Hartford,  but  the  earth  is  our  com 
mon,  which  no  Internationals  can  cut  into  strips  as 
numerous  as  the  population.  Beyond  private  rights  of 
legal  possession  it  is  an  undivided  patrimony.  One, 
asked  if  he  were  owner  of  a  line  of  coast,  replied, 
How  absurd  to  presume  to  own  shore  or  sea !  My 
idol,  like  that  of  ancient  idolaters,  is  made  of  stone. 
But  it  was  fashioned  by  no  tool  in  human  hands.  The 
elements  of  wind  and  wave  were  its  sculptors ;  the 
promontories  measure  its  stretch ;  and  through  un 
measured  leagues  of  its  proportions  it  is  vocal  with 
the  praise  I  lay,  a  sacrifice,  on  its  shrine. 

Every  thing  is  affirmative.  Denial  is  but  the  hem 
of  definition.  Nay  is  the  condition  of  Yea,  which  is 
unconditional.  Every  creature  adds  :  the  coral  insect, 
his  reefy  sepulchre  ;  the  worm  that  eats  the  mulberry, 
his  silken  tomb  ;  the  spider,  his  web,  that  pays  in  beauty 
before  the  broom  sweeps  it  away.  The  bee  is  a 
sugar-refiner  of  Nature's  most  concentrated  sweet,  like 
human  creators  of  good  finding  in  his  hive  his  grave. 
The  objector,  the  contrary  person,  has  no  business. 


MATERIALISM.  193 

Your  amount  of  righteous  will  is  your  warrant.  The 
pious  man  says,  "  I  have  no  will."  He  should  say,  No 
'wish.  It  was  not  his  will,  but  his  wish,  Jesus  resigned. 
Self-renunciation  is  not  surrender  of  will.  The  will 
is  never  so  strong  as  in  giving  up,  for  principle  and  the 
common  weal,  self-interest  or  sensual  delight. 

Every  thing  is  excellent  in  the  ratio  of  its  positive 
force.  Free  Love  and  Free  Religion  are  the  phrases 
of  the  day.  But  freedom  is  of  no  worth  save  to  ex 
press  truth,  and  conform  to  the  divine  order.  Love  and 
Religion  are  not  choices,  but  inspirations  and  necessi 
ties,  the  laws  as  well  as  liberties  of  our  being.  They 
are  stones  in  gear  to  grind  our  daily  bread,  but  falling 
they  grind  to  powder  whoever  would  shift  them  to 
the  service  of  his  passing  whim.  Personality  is  the 
secret  and  circle  of  the  world.  We  doubt  immortality 
because  we  count  personality  the  accident,  not  the 
essence  of  our  nature.  But  it  is  the  composer  as  well 
as  the  tune.  By  statutes,  that  cannot  be  repealed 
because  never  passed,  every  genuine  concord  comes : 
in  a  symphony  of  Beethoven,  in  a  harmonious  affec 
tion,  in  a  word  fitly  spoken  on  the  smooth  wheels  of 
opportunity,  or  a  pure  and  happy  deed.  To  sacrifice 
yourself  is  impossible.  God  cannot  sacrifice  you  ! 
Only  some  unworthy  propensity  —  obstinacy,  vanity, 
pride  —  can  be  sacrificed,  as  much  below  yourself  as 
the  ram  Abraham  caught  in  the  thicket  was  below 
Isaac  his  son.  Never  was  man  less  a  victim,  and 
more  a  victor,  than  Jesus  on  the  cross. 

The  opinions  of  most  people  are  accidental.  The 
minister  or  professor  does  not  succeed,  and  imputes 
his  failure  to  the  system  or  sect  he  trains  under,  or  to 


194  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

partners  who  will  not  see  his  merit,  —  unlike  the  brave 
clergyman,  who  said  he  stuck  to  Orthodoxy  because 
he  was  Orthodox  :  "  the  company  was  not  much  !  " 
If  the  person  is  greater  than  his  creed,  he  carries  it. 
If  he  is  less,  and  wins  no  promotion,  he  bolts.  If  the 
platform  is  old  and  rotten,  it  trembles  under  the  tread 
of  every  strong  man.  But  the  soul  is  one  with  its 
faith. 


VIII. 

SPIRITUALISM. 

THIS  seems  a  misnomer.     It  means  the  material 
ism   of   spirits,  so  much  of    heaven  as  can  be 
manifest   to  mortal    senses.     But  pure   spirituality  is 
impossible,  in  God  or  angel  or  man. 

"For  soul  is  form,  and  doth  the  body  make," 

writes  the  poet.  Seneca  says  it  is  a  mistake  to  think 
the  surface  is  the  inferior  part  of  a  man.  Goethe  de 
clares  :  "  O  Philistine !  there  is  no  inside."  Beauty 
and  wit  and  love  come  out.  All  the  explorations  of  sci 
ence  are  on  planes  of  inconceivable  thinness.  As  the 
soul  opens,  it  knows  it  is  not  in  the  body  which  it  uses 
and  contains  ;  but  is  as  much  more  than  that  as  the 
atmosphere  than  the  earth,  or  ether  than  the  stars. 
The  Turkish  cadi  asked  Layard,  "  Wilt  thou  see 
heaven  with  thine  eyes  ?  "  Death  will  not  benefit  us 
if  it  blinds. 

But  Spiritualism  does  not  abide  fair  experiment, 
like  electric,  chemical,  or  planetary  laws.  It  cannot 
endure  sceptics,  in  whose  presence  all  other  opera 
tions  of  the  world  go  on  without  superfluous  modesty. 
It  has  not  been  made  to  bear  on  any  practical  welfare 


196  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  man,  —  to  rescue  those  exposed  to  wreck  or  famine  ; 
to  comfort  any  in  sorrow,  save  its  own  devotees ;  to 
detect  the  sealed  number  of  a  bank-bill,  though  great 
reward  was  offered;  to  add  a  mite  to  the  store  of 
knowledge  ;  or  to  charm  intellect  or  fancy  with  any 
rare  rhetoric  of  words.  Whether  Jackson  or  Morton 
discovered  anaesthesia,  a  disembodied  spirit  did  not. 
It  was  not  beforehand  with  Leverrier  to  announce 
the  new  planet,  or  with  Daguerre  in  the  photography 
it  applies  to  cherubic  portraits.  The  great  souls  it 
re-presents  to  us  have  so  retrograded  as  to  make  the 
anticipation  of  our  own  immortality  an  alarm.  Frank 
lin,  in  its  introduction  of  him,  is  inferior  to  Poor  Rich 
ard  and  his  old  newspaper,  and  makes  no  show  so 
grand  as  with  his  knuckle  drawing  the  spark  from  his 
paper  kite.  Swedenborg  does  not  see,  nor  Washing 
ton  behave,  nor  Webster  speak  so  well  as  in  the  flesh. 
Milton's  poetry  and  Parker's  pith  are  gone.  The  rev 
elations  make  backsliders  of  all  men. 

Is  it  that  the  struggles  of  the  departed  for  self-pub 
lication  fail  on  account  of  imperfect  mediums?  It 
was  said  of  an  artist,  All  his  pictures  are  full  of  the 
east  wind.  Over  all  their  communications  runs  a 
blur.  Spiritualism  seeks  the  shade,  twilight,  drawn 
shutters,  and  a  closed-up  box  for  its  performances,  as 
it  did  midnight  in  church-yards.  Its  children  are  not 
of  the  day.  I  have  heard  of  painters  who  would  put 
their  drawing  of  a  flower  where  only  a  single  ray 
would  fall  on  it  for  the  best  effect.  But  the  cardinal 
blossom  I  picked  required  no  such  bolstering  of  gloom. 
The  more  it  was  brought  into  the  light,  so  that  the 
sun  shone  in  and  round  and  through  its  leaves,  which 


SPIRITUALISM.  197 

no  palette  can  match,  the  handsomer  it 'became.  For 
people  or  pictures  one  law  :  how  do  they  bear  being 
exposed  ?  Michel  Angelo  told  the  anxious  sculptor  to 
set  his  statue  in  the  public  square. 

Yet  Spiritualism  is  a  genuine  attempt  to  handle 
that  problem  of  existence  which  puzzles  the  young 
child  whom  we  see  putting  on  its  considering-cap  to 
know  why  it  is  here,  and  who  is  responsible  for  its 
appearance.  Somebody  it  is  evidently  determined  to 
call  to  account.  The  riddle  it  begins  to  guess  at  we 
have  not  finished,  and  Gabriel  or  Uriel  will  never 
solve. 

But  are  the  facts  of  Spiritualism  fairly  dealt  with  ? 
"  They  are  not  in  Nature,"  says  an  eminent  naturalist. 
That  is,  he  has  not  found  them.  Does  he  assume  to 
know  all  that  is  in  Nature,  and  exhaust  in  his  classes 
and  categories  her  sum?  The  gods  laugh  at  him, 
as  he  does  at  any  preceding  tribe  of  naturalists  assert 
ing  for  their  survey  eminent  domain.  Said  my  class 
mate,  to  the  senior  Professor  Ware,  of  the  a  priori 
proof,  "  This  is  unintelligible."  u  Would  you  not 
better  say,"  answered  the  venerable  head  that  swung 
its  pendulum  so  justly  between  opposing  views,  "  that 
you  do  not  understand  it?"  No  superstition  of  the 
Church  is  so  gross  as  that  of  the  scientist  that  he  has 
mastered  the  creation  in  his  formulas,  and  can  rule 
out  phenomena  not  encountered  in  his  field,  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  not  among  the  contents  of  the 
creation.  Is  he  as  chosen  clerk  to  take  an  inventory 
of  her  effects?  The  theories  that  have  been  already 
surrounded  and  overthrown  show  how  scientific  and 
ecclesiastic  dogmatists  are  blood  relations  falling  out, 


198  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

as  vice  fights  with  itself  in  another  person.  He  is 
fool,  as  theologian  or  physician,  who  fancies  no  circle 
yet  to  be  drawn  will  circumvent  him.  Give  us  your 
criterion  of  incredibleness. 

But  there  is  a  second  objection  to  Spiritualism  on 
the  score  of  religion,  urged  by  Christians  who  hold 
the  supernatural  view,  and  are  disgusted  with  the  spu 
rious  miracles  and  pretended  apparitions  of  the  new 
faith.  This  is  a  family  quarrel  about  a  supposed  will 
of  God,  under  which  one  party  claims  all  his  curiosi 
ties,  and  a  monopoly  of  prodigy,  with  which  it  is  sac 
rilege  to  interfere.  We  forget  the  absurdity  of  isolated 
portents.  Whatever  has  happened  may  occur  again, 
and  must  accord  with  law.  Half  a  dozen  ghosts  in 
Palestine,  to  please  a  few  spectators  on  the  Hebrew 
stage,  and  none  beside  in  all  history  throughout  the 
sphere,  were  as  tough  as  yesterday's  most  astounding 
tale.  Christianity  and  Spiritualism,  as  popularly  pro 
fessed,  rest  on  the  same  marvellous  prop.  Both  main 
tain  human  survival  with  external  proof.  As  the  eye 
sees  that  the  duck  or  hawk  which  rises  from  the  water 
is  the  same  that  dived  ;  as  Sam  Patch  came  up  from 
Niagara  as  he  went  down,  —  so  the  ghost  is  seen  to  be 
the  man  we  knew.  But  immortality  is  no  matter  of 
chronology.  Bare  continuance  what  noble  spirit 
would  accept?  So  the  Florida  cedar,  that  took  root 
before  the  land  was  discovered,  were  better  than  a 
man.  To  be  immortal  is  not  to  be  the  same,  but 
another  higher  self  every  day  ;  so  that  by  none,  without 
a  discerning  love,  we  could  be  recognized.  Goethe 
said  Schiller  had  taken  such  strides  as  to  astonish 
him.  Milton's  seeing  his  "  late  espoused  saint  "  in  a 


SPIRITUALISM.  199 

dream  is  grander  than  any  of  the  gross  apparitions. 
Let  us  behold  our  dear  ones  in  pure  vision  "  still  far 
high  advanced,"  rather  than  coming  back  in  their 
earthly  features' and  old  clothes.  These  bodily  resump 
tions  or  perpetuations  of  familiar  forms  are  but  one 
step  above  the  Morgue.  The  resurrection  is  no  act 
of  fleshly  preservation,  nor  heaven  a  huge  pyramid  of 
Egyptian  embalming.  The  soul  will  not  stop  with 
being  translated  :  it  must  be  transformed.  The  guise 
the  departed  return  in  hints  a  reduced  condition,  as  if 
their  absence  had  been  one  long  diminuendo;  and  in 
going  to  the  other  world  the  exchange  had  not  been 
in  their  favor.  But  God  has  only  one  world  ;  and,  in 
that,  no  conflict  of  laws,  but  progress  through  what 
ever  dark  or  devious  passage.  Jesus  is  descried  by  his 
followers  exalted  in  a  glorified  form.  If  my  vanished 
friends  be  not  more  wise  and  worthy,  but  only  senti 
mental  talkers  with  but  a  fragment  of  their  former 
character  and  remnant  of  their  wit,  show  them  not  at 
all.  Piety  were  charity,  to  walk  backward  with  a 
mantle  for  the  shame  of  celestial  simpletons  and  do 
tards,  the  sunken  wreck  of  once  fair  women  and 
brave  men.  Better  go  under  than  go  down.  A 
sailor,  hearing  ungenerous  terms  of  salvation  an 
nounced,  took  his  hat,  and  said,  "  I  make  over  my 
chances  to  the  rest  of  the  company ; "  and,  sooner 
than  be  the  sort  of  angel  some  depict  or  disclose,  let 
us  ground  arms  in  the  battle  of  life,  surrender  our 
being,  and  face  annihilation  with  a  smile. 

It  is  a  rational  faith  that  the  planets  are  inhabited 
and  our  vanished  kin  all  around  us.  But  are  they 
eaves-droppers  or  tale-bearers?  Will  they  give  us 


2OO  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ineffectual  stammerings  about  their  lot  and  our  pros 
pect,  and  lament  their  inability  to  tell  us  clearer  or 
more?  When  they  speak,  the  message  will  be  unam 
biguous  as  the  last  trumpet. or  the  first  song!  The 
soul  stoops  not  to  extraneous  support.  It  does  not 
endure  being  shored  up.  Out  of  the  immortal  nature 
immortality  has  no  proof.  Another's  rising  is  no  evi 
dence  of  mine.  Shall  I  cling  to  the  skirts  of  Jesus,  if 
God  sees  nothing  worth  saving  in  myself?  1  do  not 
wish  to  live  if  I  am  not  part  of  himself,  or  can  fall  out 
of  his  careless  hands.  Righteousness,  strength,  or  sense 
I  have  none.  All  is  his.  The  moment  I  claim  it,  it  is 
gone.  The  saint  owns  not  his  sanctity.  Christ  resents 
being  called  good  :  the  beauty  is  lost  that  has  seen 
itself  in  the  glass.  But  if  I  incur  God's  displeasure, 
I  wish  no  one's  rescue  but  his  own  !  I  have  value  in 
his  eyes,  am  part  of  his  investment ;  and  the  miracle 
is  his  projection  of  a  creature  individually  distinguished 
from  himself,  when  there  is  no  personal  distinction 
but  for  thanks,  worship,  and  love.  There  is  no  de 
monstration,  then,  of  prolonged  existence  by  sensible 
signs.  But  through  aspiration  the  soul  has  for  outfit  a 
life-preserver  in  its  own  conscious  tie  with  its  Author. 
The  lines  it  walks  on  are  shot  from  the  heavenly  shore. 
No  argument  can  be  so  strong  as  this  interior  sense. 
Though  the  graveyards  should  heave,  and  tombstones 
lean  and  fall,  to  let  up  the  swarming  myriads  of  the 
buried  in  all  time,  it  were  no  assurance  of  my  destiny 
comparable  to  my  thought  of  God  as  my  relation. 

But,  amid  the  dissolution  of  old  beliefs,  Spiritualism 
has  rescued  millions  from  the  sceptical  gulf  into  which, 
as  by  a  reaction-wheel  from  irrational  systems,  they 


SPIRITUALISM.  2OI 

were  plunged.  Better  make  our  "•  prophet  a  mahog 
any  plank,"  than  conclude  there  is  no  prophecy. 
Ridicule  of  Spiritualism,  as  a  hysteric  laugh  over  the 
charnel-house,  is  a  poor  substitute  for  the  wildest 
dreams  and  most  baseless  visions.  The  gloom  of  cham 
bers  abutting  on  the  grave,  which  to  some  is  all  that 
learning  and  culture  and  study  of  Nature  supply,  leaves 
scant  superiority  of  reason  or  advantage  for  scorn  of 
those  who  expect  to  appear  in  their  familiar  habit.  The 
ascension-robes  were  prettier  to  look  at  than  the  pall 
and  shroud.  I  was  called  many  years  ago  to  say  the 
last  words  over  the  corse  of  a  dear  sister,  whose  kith 
and  kin  thought  all  that  was  left  of  her  rested  on  the 
bier.  They  requested  the  service  should  be  as  simple, 
the  words  as  few,  the  implication  or  committal  of 
belief  as  little  as  it  could  be  made  by  reducing,  with 
selections  and  omissions,  the  Liturgy  to  its  lowest 
terms.  But  why  any  ceremony  at  all?  Wherefore 
not,  without  priestly  pretence  or  hypocritical  form, 
shovel  the  ashes  into  the  hole?  What  lingering  relic 
of  superstition,  not  quite  as  dead  as  the  senseless 
frame,  detained  the  dust,  needing  no  more  speech  than 
any  other  clod?  We  are  so  made  that  into  the  hard 
est  unbelief  Hamlet's  query  of  futurity  will  intrude. 
The  human  breast  is  a  camera-obscura,  from  which 
every  ray  of  celestial  light  cannot  be  shut  out ;  and 
Spiritualism  has  great  odds  in  its  favor  against  the 
Calvinism  which  put  all  the  generations  of  men,  with 
the  exception  of  some  Enoch,  Elijah,  or  Jesus,  under 
ground,  to  await  a  final  summons.  "You  will  rind 
your  mother,"  it  said  to  the  orphan,  "  when  the  affairs 
of  the  planet  after  myriads  of  ages  are  wound  up." 


2O2  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

To  this  "  hope  deferred,  making  the  heart  sick,"  came 
the  whisper,  "  Your  mother  wants  to  speak  to  you  :  she 
is  present  in  the  circle  here."  By  no  strategy  were  the 
lines  of  an  army  turned  into  such  rout  as  was  suffered 
by  the  believing  host  intrenched  along  the  lines  of 
apocalyptic  pictures  and  apostolic  tropes.  The  Spir 
itualist's  view  was  a  stereograph  ;  the  Calvinist's,  thin 
as  the  earliest  sun-sketch.  This  scarce  less  than  eter 
nal  sleep  ;  this  motion  indefinitely  to  postpone  our  les 
sons  and  lay  our  love  on  the  table  ;  this  dubious  getting 
up  out  of  decayed  members  and  a  conflagrated  world  ; 
this  reassembling  from  the  debris  of  Nature  of  count 
less  particles  wandering  and  lost,  —  presented  an  un 
welcome  spectacle  to  the  musing  mind.  As  well  lie 
where  we  were,  or  let  our  atoms  thrive  in  other  growth, 
as  be  disturbed  so  !  Rip  Van  Winkle's  shorter  slum 
ber,  to  wake  and  find  all  so  changed  as  to  make  his 
arousal  a  doubtful  boon,  seems  a  satire  on  so  awkward 
and  unconsoling  a  faith. 

If  the  Spiritualists  be  asked  for  proofs  of  their  creed, 
they  point  to  facts  still  taking  place,  as  wondrous  as  any 
Jewish  tales  ;  and  Science  shuts  its  eyes  to  phenomena 
it  can  neither  explain  nor  resolve.  Convicting  thau- 
maturgists  of  some  tricks  does  not  bring  all  that  is 
strange  and  incomprehensible  under  the  ban.  Noth 
ing  is  more  common  in  all  history  than  the  mixture  of 
imposture  with  truth.  Spiritualism  must  have  the 
examination  it  asks.  It  cannot  be  dismissed  with  a 
jeer.  Belief  in  the  persistency  of  persons  it  has  kept 
up.  There  was  creeping  over  us  a  cold  and  cheerless 
monotheism,  not  only  in  the  sense  that  there  is  but 
one  God,  but  that  a  numerically  one  God  is  all  there 


SPIRITUALISM.  2O3 

is  to  lift  the  earth  and  fill  the  sky.  Spiritualism  peo 
ples  space  with  his  escort  and  family.  No  longer  so 
ghastly  are  the  moon  and  stars.  Nature  is  a  swarm 
of  creatures  in  glory,  seen  or  with  vanishing  wings, 
as  in  pictures  of  the  old  masters ;  so  that  the  danger 
now  is  the  Deity  by  its  own  offspring  will  be  eclipsed. 
But  the  old  swamp  of  a  universe  is  redeemed.  What 
were  unfathomed  ocean  caves,  and  flowers  wasting 
sweetness  on  the  desert  air,  to  the  wilderness  of  an 
uninhabited  world !  Somebody  had  been  before  my 
friend,  and  was  perhaps  with  him,  to  see  the  meek 
"  Rhodora  "  he  thought  so  lovely,  when  he  came.  The 
charge  of  irrationality  on  supposing  occupants  every 
where  about  us,  though  unrevealed,  let  us  fling  back 
on  the  contrary  notion  of  inoccupancy.  If  it  be  pow 
der  in  my  ears,  O  infidel !  it  shall  be  nitro-glycerine  in 
yours. 

But  do  they  actually,  or  can  the  departed  lawfully, 
step  over  the  dead  line  ?  Were  not  two  modes  of  being 
confounded,  if  so  mixed  ?  The  answer  is  in  no  theory, 
but  must  be  in  the  facts  ;  and  if  contempt  of  Spiritu 
alism  is  a  cover  for  scepticism  of  the  soul's  futurity, 
we  must  inquire  what  our  basis  is.  If  God  could  make 
me  out  of  a  shell,  he  can  make  an  angel  out  of  me. 
If  my  body  be  a  resurrection  from  the  grave  of  a 
trilobite,  something  finer  than  enters  its  own  tomb 
may  come  out.  If  clay  has  mounted  into  my  soul, 
how  high  shall  my  soul  mount?  What  is  the  last 
graduation  of  the  scale,  on  which  nebulae  rise  into 
stars,  and  this  well-clad  planet  is  the  phoenix  of  its 
own  cinder-heap  ;  and  Newton  gets  out  of  the  balance 
he  was  so  light  in  as  a  babe,  to  weigh  the  constella- 


204  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

tions  in  his  hand?  Let  the  objector  consider  whether 
two  kinds  of  facts  are  not  classified  together.  The 
miracle  of  an  uncommon  is  not  of  course  an  ille 
gitimate  event.  An  apparition  is  not  usual.  But 
would  it  violate  any  known  law?  The  lame,  blind, 
deaf  and  dumb,  are  cured  by  long  treatment  sometimes. 
Would  sudden  healing  break  the  world's  order?  Blast 
ing  a  fig-tree,  or  multiplying  thousand-fold  loaves  never 
baked  and  fishes  that  never  swam,  were  an  affront  to 
reason,  a  floating  of  things  from  their  foundations,  a 
lie  of  Nature,  so  that  we  could  not  depend  on  her 
word.  When  the  discovery  of  fossil  remains  and 
shells  of  extinct  fishes  was  alleged  to  prove  the  planet 
more  than  six  thousand  years  old,  a  clergyman  asked 
why  God  could  not  have  made  the  fossil  bones  and 
shells  just  as  they  were  in  their  beds,  having  never 
served  any  living  creatures  for  homes?  It  was  asked, 
in  reply,  why  God  could  not  have  created  Hercu- 
laneum  and  Pompeii  under  ground,  never  having  been 
cities  on  the  surface  or  the  habitations  of  men  !  If 
any  Being  could  do  this,  his  doing  it  would  be  a  lie, 
after  which  we  could  put  in  him  no  confidence,  tell  us 
to  trust  him  however  prophets  might.  He  had  ap 
pointed  us  to  meet  him  in  a  particular  place,  and 
not  kept  his  tryst.  We  should  not  know  what  other 
promise  he  might  break.  God  is  faithful,  and  does 
not  go  back  on  us  or  on  himself.  He  goes  forward, 
and  leads  us  to  higher  revelation  without  end.  But 
seraphs  coming  as  ghosts  on  earth,  or  mortals  going 
as  ghosts  to  heaven,  are  no  burglars.  Earth  and 
heaven  are  but  mansions  of  one  house.  It  is  God's 
extension  to  us  his  debtors. 


SPIRITUALISM.  2O5 

But  the  spectral  demonstration  there  are  those  who 
neither  relish  nor  need.  They  are  above  the  middle 
air,  in  which  these  heavy-winged  cherubim  fly,  that 
are  like  herons  among  birds,  soon  weary  of  soaring 
and  ever  ready  with  their  long  legs  to  light  on  the 
flats.  Doubtless  these  frequenters  from  above  of  our 
lower  atmosphere  will  turn  out  to  be  amphibious  creat 
ures,  not  permanently  content  with  either  element ; 
mediators  on  the  fence  betwixt  the  spheres,  or  a  sort 
of  insurance  company  for  such  as  doubt  the  superior 
life.  Spiritualism  is  spirituality  run  into  the  ground. 
Yet  some  must  have  celestial  things  made  plain,  as 
figures  are  chalked  large  for  the  dull-eyed  or  near 
sighted.  All  Divine  revelation  is  condescension  to 
those  who  cannot  gaze  undazzled  on  the  sun.  Who 
are  the  philosophers  to  disdain  its  lowest  degrees? 
The  sage  rebuked  the  savage  for  fondling  his  Deity, 
and  addressing  to  it  endearing  words.  But  God 
rebuked  the  sage  for  repelling  his  child,  really  draw 
ing  nigh  to  him  at  the  only  point  his  ignorance  could 
reach,  as  little  ones  walk  to  their  parents  with  weak 
and  wavering  steps.  What  are  all  our  approaches  to 
the  Infinite  but  as  of  babes  that  step  and  stumble,  and 
venture  on  ?  The  boy  or  girl  you  see  on  a  door-step, 
trying  and  straining  to  get  hold  of  the  handle  of  a 
bell,  is  an  image  of  our  best  prayers.  O  metaphysi 
cian  !  are  the  Spiritualists  coarse  and  you  refined,  or 
are  they  substantial  and  you  vague  in  your  speculations 
on  the  transcendent  theme  ?  The  Future  will  decide 
the  relative  value  of  the  stuff  from  their  looms  and 
the  webs  from  your  brains. 

Meantime  let  those  who  care  less  for  the  outward 


206  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

facts  and  more  for  the  inward  thoughts  be  thankful 
for  the  subject,  which  no  meditation  or  disclosure  ex 
hausts.  I  too  much  enjoy  my  reflections  to  wish  the 
matter  cleared  up.  "  Grandmother,  what  is  glory  ?  " 
cried  the  lad  learning  the  Lord's  Prayer.  I  do  not 
quite  want  to  know.  Let  the  New  Jerusalem  not  be 
measured  for  me  !  I  desire  not  to  be  informed  how 
many  sorts  or  regiments  of  angels  there  are.  Let 
something  even  of  the  certainty  of  bliss  be  reserved, 
and  of  the  eternal  blazon  withheld  ;  nor  the  story  be 
told  till  it  become  trite.  The  gladness  of  the  supernal 
visitants  to  see  us,  and  be  able  to  manifest  themselves, 
gets  a  little  tiresome.  We  hope  there  is  some  secret 
they  have  not  let  out.  We  should  be  disappointed 
with  Paradise,  if  what  they  say  of  it  were  all.  Shall 
we  complain  that  the  Divinity  is  veiled,  or  in  eclipse  ; 
and  the  road  of  our  destiny  runs  and  turns  out  of 
sight?  Let  us  rather  rejoice  in  the  hidings  of  his 
power,  in  promise  of  fountains  we  can  never  drain  ; 
and  that  the  path  is  no  turnpike  stretching  monotonous 
over  the  blazing  hills,  but  winding  and  tempting 
through  lonely  hollows  and  thickets  of  mystery  !  The 
descent  of  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  so  cool 
and  private,  is  good  for  us,  as  well  as  ascending  among 
the  seats  of  the  elders.  With  what  rest  and  refreshment, 
on  mossy  beds  and  along  noiseless  streams,  may  it  not 
prepare  for  new  action  and  advance  !  1  bless  my  Maker 
for  my  joy  to  think,  exceeding  all  pleasure  of  other 
appetite  or  possession,  festal  scene,  beauty  of  prospect, 
or  travel  by  land  or  sea.  "  I  want  more  light,"  said 
my  friend.  But  I  am  sure  enough,  because  sure  as  He 
wills.  I  read  in  the  religious  sheet  a  lamentation  over 


SPIRITUALISM.  207 

one,  standing  outside  the  accepted  Christian  faith,  as 
therefore  less  convinced  of  happy  survival  of  the  dis 
solving  flesh.  O  critic  !  is  the  vista  clear  and  the  jour 
ney  mapped  out  for  you  ?  Are  there  no  queries  to  be 
put,  surprises  to  encounter,  or  discoveries  to  make? 
Yours  then  were  the  lot  to  be  deplored  ! 

Shall  it  be  said  there  is  something  ungrateful  in  this 
craving  for  circumstantial  knowledge  beyond  our  pres 
ent  lot?  One  world  to  be  in  is  enough  at  a  time.  Let 
us  not  grasp  after  the  preternatural,  which  will  be  nat 
ural  in  due  season  ;  nor  seek  unto  strangers  after  news 
of  our  ascended  friends ;  nor  covet  a  support  for  our 
selves  in  the  dark  valley  beyond  the  rod  and  staff'  leaned 
on  by  our  race  ;  nor  wish  to  degrade  for  our  convenience 
or  curiosity  those  promoted  from  the  earth.  A  man 
once  fell  from  an  immense  raft  of  logs  on  the  Penob- 
scot,  and  disappeared  in  the  foaming  stream.  A  few 
days  after,  his  employer,  seeing  what  seemed  his 
ghost  advancing  toward  him,  with  the  well-worn  im 
plement  for  arranging  the  logs  in  hand,  cried  out  with 
horror,  "  Do  not  come  back :  you  are  welcome  to  the 
fork  !  "  Is  there  not  something  in  the  coarse  and  comic 
expression  that  goes  seriously  to  the  heart?  What  is 
the  design  of  our  friends'  going,  but  that  they  may 
reach  a  higher  state,  and  we  get  along  without  them, 
in  outward  presence  and  person,  as  well  as  we  may? 
Shall  God  repent  of  and  foil  his  own  purpose,  by  or 
dering  at  once  their  sensible  return  ?  It  were  to  belittle 
the  majesty  of  bereavement,  and  discrown  death  of  its 
glory,  for  a  consolation  so  fleshly  and  weak.  Parting 
is  a  lesson :  shall  the  book  it  is  written  in  be  snatched 
away  before  it  is  learned  ?  The  grave  means  something  ; 


2O8  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

and,  though  it  never  held  a  soul,  were  too  empty  of 
significance,  if  the  tenant  walks  out  the  day  after  his 
burial  to  mock  us  with  his  mortal  shape.  Let  us  not 
grasp  at  the  treasure  God  hides,  but  be  patient  till  he 
give  it  to  us  again  as  to  the  rest  of  mankind  in  his  own 
way.  To  cleanse,  not  continue  our  fondness,  he  takes 
away  our  idols,  and  denies  the  familiar  embrace.  Our 
beloved  leave  our  senses  to  lodge  in  our  souls  ;  and 
the  holv  imagination,  that  works  in  their  living  sub 
stance  to  shape  them  more  finely  than  before,  were 
baffled  by  gross  presentment  of  their  wonted  form. 

That  our  virtue  may  be  pure  and  sublime,  God 
withholds  the  "  eternal  blazon  "  we  seek.  The  saints 
of  former  ages  trod  their  way  unhelped  by  marvellous 
shows.  They  knew  no  distinction  of  nature  and  the 
supernatural.  Nature,  in  human  knowledge  of  a 
lawful  creation,  is  a  modern  entity ;  and  from  the 
subject  they  mused  on  so  intensely  till  the  fire  burned 
came  the  object  that  could  be  seen  and  felt  in  the  air. 
It  was  their  faith,  not  the  fact,  that  was  extraordinary, 
amounting  to  a  second-sight.  If  angels  went  and 
ministered  unto  Jesus,  in  visible  form,  as  of  flesh  and 
blood,  he  had  the  advantage  of  a  succor  forbid  to  us, 
and  detracting  from  the  truth  and  honor  of  his  exam 
ple.  Who  wras  there  to  lift  him  from  his  agony  in  the 
Garden ;  or  help  him,  but  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  to 
bear  his  cross?  When  he  was  mocked  with  the  pur 
ple,  and  pierced  with  the  thorns,  and  drank  the  gall, 
there  was  none  to  stand  by  him  but  God.  Invisible 
sympathy  sufficed.  The  same  is  too  wholesome,  and 
needful  for  our  goodness  from  Him,  that  we  should 
wish  it  ncutrali/cd  or  lowered  in  quality  by  carnal  aid 


SPIRITUALISM.  209 

of  apparitions  to  touch  us  with  warm  hands.  The 
struggle  with  pain  and  temptation  is  hard  ;  but  let  me 
have  no  superiority  in  it  to  my  kind.  "  I  am  a  stran 
ger  and  pilgrim  on  the  earth,  as  all  my  Fathers  were." 
If  I  can  share  their  fate,  I  am  content  with  their  lot. 
They  ventured  forth  on  unforeseen  perils  of  an  untried 
existence  ;  and  I  will  follow  in  the  same  straits,  hop 
ing  through  fog  and  icy  currents  and  driving  storms 
to  reach  their  warm  Polar  Sea.  How  corrupting  is 
this  mistaken  vanity  of  being  carried  in  some  spirit 
ual  elevator  above  foregoing  generations !  The  im 
proved  arts  and  increased  comforts  dispense  not  with 
our  working  out  our  own  salvation  by  effort  and  pa 
tience  equal  to  theirs.  What  we  call  the  progress  of 
society  may  hinder  as  much  as  it  furthers  the  soul. 
Want  of  that  vivid  feeling  of  Deity  which  solved  the 
world  in  wonder,  and  stamped  any  former  time  as  the 
age  of  miracle,  is  proof  of  a  decline  in  one  direction, 
to  match  whatever  general  advance. 

Spirit  is  its  own  proof,  which  no  rarefaction  of  mat 
ter  can  reach.  What  signifies  a  street-full  of  ghosts 
if  they  teach  me  naught?  The  lively  Frenchwoman 
said  they  were  but  mortals  who,  though  dead,  had 
never  been  able  to  go.  Spiritualism  has  offset  the 
scepticism  of  the  market,  but  not  disentangled  the 
soul  from  sense.  Its  spirits  are  bodies ;  and  bound 
less  liberty  between  the  sexes  is  the  doctrine  of  one 
of  its  seers.  Life  is  the  test  of  honor  or  shame  to  our 

faith. 

14 


IX. 

FAITH. 

is  a  feeling  which  it  needs  no  science  but 
-••  close  observation  to  know  is  shared  by  lower 
creatures ;  by  the  cat  rubbing  round  your  leg,  and 
the  dog  you  may  call  Fido  to  signify  his  loyalty ;  by 
the  horse  that  owns  your  stroking  of  his  neck,  and  the 
cow  that  takes  your  hand  into  her  mouth,  as  well  as 
by  the  babe  sinking  unalarmed  to  sleep  on  its  mother's 
breast.  It  is  dependence,  a  consciousness  of  succor 
and  support.  We  call  it  religion,  no  definition  of 
which  suffices  that  makes  it  an  act  of  the  intellect 
or  confines  it  altogether  to  man.  It  is  the  owning  of 
superior  power  and  goodness  ;  a  sense  of  God  in  the 
soul :  not  the  motion  we  make,  but  he  makes  in  us, 
finding  himself  in  our  heart.  It  is  a  narrow  measure 
that  would  put  this  Divine  seizure  into  our  understand 
ing,  and  a  false  date  that  would  derive  it  from  our 
will.  No  picture  in  Nature  more  touches  a  child  than 
a  fountain  bubbling  noiseless  from  the  ground,  carry 
ing  up  a  perpetual  pillar  of  whirling  sand,  as  firm  in 
the  water  as  that  which  moves  in  the  caravan's  sight, 
or  once  led  Israel  through  the  desert.  It  is  an  image 
of  the  well  springing  up  unto  everlasting  life. 


FAITH.  211 

But  this  Faith  is  thought  by  many  to  be  in  suspense 
or  passing  away.  Physical  philosophy  has  drilled  and 
blasted  the  old  rock  men  rested  and  built  on  as  eter 
nal  ;  and  people  run  every  way  from  more  expected 
explosions.  Rome  was  not  more  moved  by  those  ter 
rible  Gauls  than  is  the  Church  by  these  uncompliment 
ary  barbarians  —  geology,  astronomy,  and  ethnology  — 
making  havoc  of  her  traditions  and  savage  work  with 
her  sacred  books.  Study  stops  no  more  for  priestly 
remonstrance  than  the  train  for  a  boy's  pin  on  the 
rail.  The  last  rag  of  belief  seems  about  to  be  torn 
from  us  by  ruthless  hands.  Not  only  Mormonism  and 
serpent-worship  are  descended  upon  for  gross  offences, 
but  a  right  to  arrest  Christianity  is  asserted  by  the  new 
police. 

But  the  primitive  granite  cannot  be  blown  up.  Be 
cause  it  has  been  found  out  that  the  world  was  not 
made  in  six  days,  but  was  a  job  too  long  to  be  done 
by  any  demiurgus  ;  that  mankind  cannot  be  derived 
from  one  pair ;  that  no  single  flood  ever  drowned  all 
Nature  ;  that  history  is  not  fall,  but  an  ever-ascending 
order ;  and  that  the  Bible  has  flaws  for  Colenso  to 
point  out  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  Strauss  and  Baur 
in  the  New,  —  is  Faith  destroyed?  No  more  than  a 
building  by  an  architect's  removal  of  a  rotten  under 
pinning  to  plant  his  structure  on  the  ledge.  No  record 
is  exempt  from  critical  tests,  and  the  command  of 
thought  to  move  on.  Jupiter  and  Venus,  Mars  and 
Mercury,  and  Saturn  himself,  are  driven  into  lifeless 
names  and  sparkling  points  in  the  sky  ;  tormenting 
witch  and  enchanting  fairy  are  gone,  and  not  a  few  of 
our  cherished  forms  and  notions  must  follow.  But 


212  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Faith   survives  out  of  dissolving  superstitions,  as  the 
trees  out  of  last   year's  decaying   leaves. 

Nor  does  Faith,  like  a  feudal  prisoner,  live  at  the 
mercy  of  science,  but  is  sovereign.  Where  were 
knowledge  without  motive  of  curiosity  and  confidence 
in  something  to  be  known?  Lessing  liked  truth  or  cer 
tainty  less  than  the  pursuit  of  it.  Why  care  for  it  but 
from  prior  persuasion  of  a  correspondence  in  the  world 
with  ourselves ;  that  things  and  thoughts  are  made  fast 
with  the  same  glue  ;  that  creation  is  no  confidence- 
game  to  cheat  us  with  marked  cards  or  loaded  dice  of 
laws  broken  in  anybody's  favor ;  but,  without  one 
juggle,  will  justify  to  the  end  the  inquiry  it  prompts. 
If  Intellect  be  father  this  Faith  is  mother  of  sciences 
and  arts.  The  scholar  is  led  by  some  surmise,  like  the 
lamp  in  the  miner's  or  hunter's  cap  casting  its  light  on 
the  dark.  This  column  of  fire  and  cloud  in  the  mind 
gave  Columbus  his  second-sight.  The  laws  of  matter 
come  as  ideas,  those  ghosts  of  the  mind,  before  they  are 
verified  in  facts.  Newton's  unity,  or  God's  in  him, 
revealed  Nature's  to  him  ;  and  no  falling  apple  was 
more  than  a  signal-ball.  "Whither  now?"  asks  the 
child  of  the  angel,  in  Greenough's  statue.  Hope  is  the 
mind's  angel-guide.  Darwin  admits  the  missing  links, 
but  clings  to  the  organic  unity.  His  faith  cheers  and 
halloos  the  hound  of  his  understanding.  Huxley  can 
not  meet  objections  to  his  protoplasm  ;  but  thinks  the 
builder's  brick,  for  this  palace  or  mosaic,  though  too 
small  to  handle,  will  yet  appear.  He  will  furnish 
cement  or  mortar  from  his  own  mind.  Because 
Goethe  is  no  dualist,  but  a  believer  in  the  One,  he 
finds  in  the  sheep's  skull  a  transformed  vertebra ;  in 


FAITH.  213 

the  fruit  the  leaf,  and  in  all  the  colors  of  the  rain 
bow  varying  mixtures  of  light  and  shade.  Do  we 
call  the  child  cunning,  for  the  interrogation-point 
in  its  face?  How  it  coasts  along  and  circumnavi 
gates  its  own  little  globe  of  flesh,  finds  its  continent 
an  island,  becomes  an  individual,  parts  from  God  and 
begins  to  be  afraid,  and  loses  for  a  time  its  innocent 
wonder !  Age  is  not  in  years,  but  self-sufficiency. 
Our  octogenarians  are  lads  in  what  is  called  the  dark 
age,  and  misses  in  their  teens.  But  the  man  reflecting 
becomes  the  child  again.  The  moon-faced  marvelling 
of  the  babe  is  shallow  to  that  surprise  of  the  unfolded 
mind  which  no  deep-sea  line  of  metaphysics  can  sound. 
The  man  believes  so  much,  he  is  called  infidel ;  and 
atheist,  for  being  intoxicated  with  God.  The  sanctu 
ary  cannot  hold  him,  as  the  queen's  court  could  not 
Talbot's  troops.  The  fire  is  quenched  by  the  sun  of 
miracle.  Cork  up  some  supernatural  drop  to  which 
all  Nature  beside  is  but  "leather  and  prunella  "? 
What  is  liquefaction  of  the  blood  of  St.  Januarius  to 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  ;  or  the  turning  of  water  into 
wine  at  Cana  to  that  on  the  Danube  and  Rhine  ;  or 
the  money  in  the  fish's  mouth  to  the  Australian  mines  ; 
or  the  blasting  of  the  fig-tree  to  its  growth  ;  or  Joshua's 
brake  on  the  sun  to  the  rolling  of  its  car ;  or  the  spec 
tre  to  the  moon's  light ;  or  a  revolting  resurrection 
of  the  body  to  the  immortal  life  of  the  soul?  I  believe 
in  Christ's  healing,  because  all  goodness  heals.  Said 
Edward  Everett  to  an  overweening  solicitor,  "  You 
make  me  sick."  True  men  and  women  are  all  physi 
cians  to  make  us  well.  Faith  in  God's  works  let  us 
have.  Any  supposed  counter-works  or  anti-works  im- 


214  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ply  duplicity  in  his  constitution.  Like  the  love  Shak- 
speare  boasts,  this  world  was  builded  far  from  "  acci 
dent."  The  paper  account  of  it  may  be  but  credit 
mobile.  But  the  Bible  is  not  fountain  nor  river,  but 
reservoir ;  and,  though  it  become  a  ruin,  the  spring  is 
deeper  than  that  lake  Nyanza  Baker  found  at  the  head 
of  the  Nile.  The  stream  flows  like  the  Euxine  to  the 
sea  :  it  is  a  Danube  to  force  its  way  through  mountains 
of  prejudice  ;  a  St.  Lawrence  brawling  over  rocks  of 
controversy ;  a  Niagara  dropping  to  a  different  plane 
and  deeper  tide  over  the  pitch  of  some  tremendous 
reform,  like  Luther's  ;  a  cataract  ready  for  a  new  leap 
in  that  German  mind,  scorned  as  unpractical,  but 
showing  its  double  genius  to  speculate  and  act. 

We  must  not  confound  with  the  substance  the  acci 
dents  of  faith.  A  scholar  suggested  to  a  churchman 
the  unimportance  of  some  rite.  "  Nothing  is  unimpor 
tant  that  we  stand  on,"  was  the  reply.  But  why  stand 
on  trifles,  any  pulling  of  which  from  under  our  feet 
may  trip  us  up  ?  Forms  and  formulas  are  burrows  of 
insincerity.  "  What  is  the  difference  in  your  farmer 
since  his  conversion  ?  "  —  "  This,  —  that  when  he  used, 
in  cutting  trees  on  Sunday  morning,  to  carry  his  axe 
on  his  shoulder,  now  he  carries  it  under  his  cloak." 
Chunder  Sen  arraigns  English  hypocrisy,  sending  the 
brandy-bottle  with  the  Bible  to  India. 

Doubtless,  faith  must  be  nourished  by  scriptures  and 
institutions.  But  it  is  congested  when  they  become 
ends  instead  of  means.  Mr.  Brindley  had  not  much 
sense  of  beauty  when  he  said  the  use  of  rivers  was  to 
feed  canals ;  and  the  beauty  of  virtue  is  gone  when 
the  canal  of  the  Church  is  made  the  reason  and  end  of 


FAITH.  215 

those  affections  which  are  the  currents  of  the  soul ;  and 
God  himself  is  considered  part  of  the  Establishment. 
Faith  is  the  motion  of  love.  Visiting  a  nephew  of 
General  Hardee,  the  writer  on  Tactics,  I  heard  from 
the  wife  a  complaint  of  the  Northern  soldiers  who 
had  trampled  her  orange-grove  and  spoiled  the  crop. 
I  took  some  large  oranges  from  my  pocket  and  gave 
to  her  children,  saying,  "  Here  are  some  that  have 
come  back."  —  "I  am  beginning  to  have  faith  in  these 
Yankees"  she  cried.  A  small  kindness  may  be  mother 
of  a  child  of  goodness  that  grows  to  be  larger  than 
herself.  But  whoever  had  a  human  friend  he  was 
not  obliged  to  turn  from  to  God?  Said  a  nervous 
woman,  "  I  have  sometimes  to  tell  my  husband  to 
go  away."  But  so  we  never  tell  Him. 

But  has  Faith  any  hold  on  the  future?  Let  science 
answer.  When  Copernicus  was  told,  according  to 
his  theory  the  planet  Venus  should  have  phases  as 
well  as  the  moon,  he  said,  u  Wait  till  you  have  a  tele 
scope  of  sufficient  power."  Those  phases  were  among 
the  first  things  the  improved  telescope  reached.  From 
a  resinous  property  he  detected  in  the  refraction  of 
the  diamond,  Newton  predicted  the  discovery  that  it 
is  carbon.  When  the  new  planet  appears,  Leverrier, 
like  Wordsworth's  saint,  but  "  sees  what  he  foresaw." 
Morton  risks  murder  for  the  blessing  of  ether  to  man 
kind.  Our  punctual  crossing  the  Atlantic  by  steam, 
and  traversing  its  monstrous  bottom  with  the  electric 
cable,  was  once  a  prophecy.  Quite  alien  from  such 
cases  is  the  prevision  of  that  immortal  sea  we  shall 
navigate  when  this  poor  flesh  is  a  condemned  vessel  ? 
Is  Nature  a  subject  for  foresight,  and  human  nature 


2l6  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

not?  The  anticipation  of  gold  pavements,  and  houris, 
and  luxurious  boards,  is  the  coarse  working  of  the 
instinct.  We  must  not  expect  to  take  our  old  coats 
and  shoes  with  us.  "  How.  much  did  he  leave?" 
"  He  left  it  all :  he  did  not  take  a  cent !  "  But  in 
spiritual  immortality  is  nothing  base.  It  is  the  unself- 
ing  of  the  soul.  Our  hope  of  it  is  our  honor  of  God. 
He  does  not  play  with  us  to  give  us  a  good  time  at 
any  theatre  of  Vanity  Fair,  nor  let  us  lick  the  hand 
just  raised  to  shed  our  blood,  but  will  justify  our  aspi 
ration  in  a  fact  as  sublime.  "  Whom  God  deceives  is 
well-deceived,"  say  you,  O  Goethe?  Deceit  of  the 
inmost  in  us  were  self-deception  in.  him.  Forms  will 
pass.  When  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was 
called  in  question,  a  pious  woman  said,  "  If  they  take 
away  the  bread  and  wine,  what  shall  we  have  left  ?  " 
But  the  light  will  remain,  fall  the  shadows  how  they 
will.  Sunday  may  lose  its  emphasis.  Men  may  get 
along  without  ministers.  "  Your  kingdom,"  said 
Charles  Sprague  to  a  clergyman,  "  is  passing  away." 
The  triumph  of  the  Church,  as  of  its  Head^  will  be 
in  going  from  us.  But  the  kingdom  of  God  will  not 
pass  ;  and  that  kingdom  shall  be  a  home. 

Faith  is  unity,  the  real  atonement.  Faith  is  one,  in 
distinction  from  particular  objects,  be  it  fixed  on  God 
or  Christ,  Saint  or  Virgin,  angel  or  mortal.  The 
motto  for  a  seal,  /  die  'where  I  am  attached,  is 
graven  on  a  vine  twining  round  a  pillar.  But  the 
fidelity  is  in  the  vine  itself,  whether  climbing  on  a 
trellis  or  a  tree  ;  and  my  trust  in  my  partner's  loyalty 
is  as  noble  as  in  my  Redeemer's  sacrifice,  or  my  Maker's 
faithfulness.  The  same  principle  clambers  to  heaven 


FAITH.  217 

or  clings  to  earth.  It  may  make  an  idol  of  a  stone  or 
fetish  of  a  man,  but  parts  not  quite  with  its  own  noble 
ness.  Holding  to  a  bit  of  carved  wood,  painted  image, 
woven  flag,  or  printed  creed,  it  implies  invisible  excel 
lence  or  sufficient  help,  some  reliance  on  the  constitu 
tion  and  Constituter  of  the  world.  In  the  yacht-squadron 
my  friend's  fancy  saw  a  troop  of  hooded  shapes  glid 
ing  ghostly  over  the  deep.  I  saw  clouds  of  canvas 
bellying  from  the  well-moulded  hulls,  guided  by  mor 
tal  hands  of  eager  captains,  who  believed  in  the  laws 
of  wood  and  iron,  water  and  air,  and  the  triumph  of 
the  best  model  and  sail  and  skill.  In  the  sloop  and 
schooner,  that  tried  conclusions,  leaving  the  rest  in  a 
helpless  heap  behind,  was  a  figure  of  minds  far  ahead 
of  their  generation,  of  that  proud  majority  which  is 
but  a  confused  multitude  and  lagging  crowd.  All 
faith  is  in  law  and  lawgiver.  Subscription  to  miracle, 
though  exacted  and  crowned  in  the  Christian  Church, 
is  unbelief.  My  friend  exposes  glass  on  his  roof,  and 
in  due  time  the  sun  gives  it  a  beautiful  rose-color.  If 
the  sun  do  it  this  year,  and  refuse  next,  we  could  put 
no  confidence  in  the  sun,  nor  know  but  it  would  rise 
in  a  new  quarter,  or  its  furnace-register  give  out. 
Who  could  lean  on  a  Being  that  played  fast  and  loose  ? 
How  foolishly  we  talk  of  his  making  laws  !  His  laws 
were  never  made.  They  have  not  their  birth  in  time, 
but  are  necessary  in  him,  are  himself,  and  cannot 
change  more  than  he,  —  not  card-castles  he  like  a  child 
is  amused  with  building  and  throwing  down.  Not 
lack  but  fulness  of  faith  rejects  tales  of  unnatural 
transformation  of  water  into  wine,  and  green  leaves 
into  withered,  or  any  substance  unknown  into  silver 


2l8  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

coin.  These  are  juggles,  to  which  Perfect  Wisdom 
cannot  stoop.  It  is  time  miracle,  as  a  test,  were  with 
drawn.  Those  who  cannot  abide  it  the  Church  can 
not  afford  to  lose.  Doubtless  there  are  interpretations, 
like  Dr.  Bushnell's,  by  which  the  supernatural  turns  out 
to  be  the  natural,  and  the  portents  are  made  as  orderly 
as  the  procession.  But  will  you  lay  persons,  who  can 
neither  take  them  raw,  nor  cook  nor  construe  them  so, 
under  ecclesiastic  ban? 

Faith  is  distinguishable,  next,  from  its  statements. 
What  men  contend  about  is  not  the  substance,  but  the 
form :  the  five  points,  thirty-nine  articles,  the  scores 
of  sacred  books  so  uneasy  ever  since  they  were  bound 
into  one,  the  discrepancies  in  doctrines,  narratives, 
or  genealogies,  and  uncounted  clauses  and  texts.  My 
friend  told  me  he  thought  "  God  must  be  sorry  now 
he  had  a  Bible,  finding  men  quarrel  about  it  so."  Ex 
pressions,  unsatisfactory  to  those  they  are  invented  by, 
generate  strife.  Every  church  in  Christendom  is  con 
vulsed  over  the  undermined  language  of  its  collect  or 
creed,  and  all  who  stand  on  it  are  in  fear  of  being  blown 
up.  Written  dogmas,  not  shifting  to  correspond  with 
the  march  of  knowledge,  are  flanked.  They  cease  to 
be  sentiments,  and  become  tenets  grasped  and  held  by 
the  will.  Some  persons  escape  from  the  untenable 
forts  of  theology  ;  and  some  try  yet  to  man  the  hope 
less  guns.  The  war  becomes  a  melee;  and  no  man 
knows  his  opponent.  The  excommunicator  finds  him 
self  at  heart  excommunicated,  with  but  some  tatter  of 
a  phrase  which  for  a  weapon  he  has  clutched.  By 
the  bishops  that  judge  Colenso  is  he  not  secretly 
indorsed?  Priests,  like  politicians,  illustrate  Talley- 


FAITH.  219 

rand's  saying  that  the  use  of  language  is  to  conceal 
thought;  and  the  art  of  putting  things  confounds 
candor  with  trick.  Part  of  the  clergy  in  every  estab 
lishment  outgrow  and  chafe  under  the  old  cut  of  the 
uniform  which  from  policy  they  still  wear.  Others, 
like  mourners  going  from  black  to  slate  color,  attempt 
to  vary  their  costume  by  degrees,  to  take  time  by  the 
forelock,  and  meet  the  coming  wave.  My  brother 
would  fain  be  free.  On  judiciously  selected  points  he 
is  outspoken,  and  wins  credit  of  courage  and  being 
independent.  But  his  boldness  is  not  boldness.  He  is 
not  loyal  to  his  last  and  innermost  belief.  He  thinks 
the  time  has  not  come,  or  the  people  are  unprepared. 
He  will  work  at  the  soil  successive  seasons  before 
casting  in  the  seed.  But,  had  prophets  waited  till 
everybody  was  ready,  would  any  reform  have  oc 
curred?  It  is  a  battle  of  sentences,  theologians  now 
fight,  more  than  of  thoughts.  All  are  on  the  defence. 
They  are  mouth-pieces  of  ancient  divinity,  holding 
proof-texts  as  shields  over  their  heads.  You  are  brave 
only  in  spots,  O  Orthodox  or  Episcopal  friend  !  Now 
and  then,  here  or  there,  you  deal  a  lusty  blow  at 
prejudice.  But  you  have  no  mettle  of  principle,  al 
ways,  everywhere,  and  all  over.  Dare  to  say  as  you 
think,  —  that  there  is  no  warrant  but  expediency  for 
governing  the  Church  ;  no  system  of  divinity  in  your 
symbolical  books  ;  no  authority  for  faith  in  the  Bible 
or  any  printed  word  ;  no  evidence  of  immortality  but 
in  the  immortal  soul ;  no  God  apart  from  Nature  and 
man  ;  that  every  spirit  can  say  with  Jesus,  "  I  and 
my  Father  are  one  ;  "  that  the  Divine  unity  consists 
eternally  in  its  offspring,  is  in  its  activity,  and  in  loss 


220  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  its  relations  were  itself  deceased,  —  and  your  con 
gregation  might  be  as  thin  as  ours  ! 

Though  we  seem  earth-wide  and  heaven-wide  apart, 
faith  is  one  motion  in  our  minds.  The  collision  is 
between  the  trains  of  word  and  theory.  Some  fresh 
conviction  struggles  for  life  out  of  worn-out  schemes, 
as,  from  the  gravel,  which  a  past  vegetation  crumbled 
into,  I  admire  to  see  the  sweet  rose  and  soft  mullein 
spring.  Happy  is  he  by  whose  imagination,  in  some 
new  proverb,  it  is  voiced.  Lonely  as  the  seer  that 
sat  astonied,  or  as  John  the  Baptist  in  the  wilder 
ness,  he  will  be  for  a  time.  But  soon  he  will  appear 
a  forerunner  one  party  would  expel  and  another  win. 
"  Go  out,"  says  the  pope  to  Dollinger,  yet  begs  confer 
ence  with  the  man  more  formidable  than  a  rival  pope  ; 
"  as  if,"  wittily  answers  the  great  heresiarch,  "  the 
Father  cared  to  have  my  body  with  him  when  he 
has  excommunicated  my  soul."  "  Come,"  cry  the 
Rationalists  to  the  robust  Romanist,  "  to  swell  our 
revenue !  "  The  Papal  fear  and  Radical  hope  prove  a 
common  ground  beneath  personal  pretensions  and 
a  belligerent  vocabulary. 

For,  thirdly,  Faith,  distinguishable  from  all  partic 
ulars  of  object  or  statement,  is  indistinguishable  in 
itself.  Other  properties  may  be  christened  by  its 
name.  Pride  and  passion,  sensuous  music,  gay  archi 
tecture,  Sunday  clothes,  keeping  one  day  holy,  seeking 
God  in  a  single  place  ;  making  the  curtains  of  a  tem 
ple,  the  gems  of  a  Shekinah,  or  the  rafters  of  a  meet 
ing-house  holier  than  all  space  ;  removing  the  temple 
not  made  with  hands  to  some  heavenly  distance, 
instead  of  trembling  with  joy  in  it  all  around  and 


FAITH.  221 

every  day ;  thinking  the  Divinity  can  undergo  shrink 
age  from  the  universe  to  a  conventicle, —  all  this  may 
be  considered  faith.  But  by  the  narrow  mode  its 
quality  is  not  touched.  In  every  age  and  nation  which 
we  call  heathen,  —  through  Buddhist  and  Brahmin, 
Mahometan  and  Chinaman,  Indian  of  the  Eastern  or 
Western  clime,  sun  or  serpent  worshipper,  —  a  like 
feeling  runs  from  one  Source,  with  whatever  stain  in 
the  stream. 

Faith  is  repose  in  the  perfection  of  the  world.  Job, 
cursing  the  day  of  his  birth,  and  wishing  to  cover  it 
with  night  and  be  his  own  pall-bearer,  was  an  infidel. 
Schopenhauer,  flinging  stones  at  the  creation,  as  a 
worsted  work  that  just  rubs  and  goes,  is  prince  of 
denying  spirits.  My  friend,  rejecting  Christianity,  is 
not  a  sceptic  ;  for  he  worships  Truth,  and  never  flinched 
in  his  persuasion,  like  Wordsworth's,  that  every  thing 
is  "  full  of  blessings."  He  has  less  doubt  in  him  than 
that  infallible  Pius  IX.,  unable  to  foresee  his  own 
dethronement,  vainly  beseeching  a  conference  with 
the  recusant  German  scholar  on  points  in  dispute,  and 
trembling  before  rebels  he  would  cut  off  but  that  they 
are  protected  by  the  foremost  nation  in  the  world.  This 
friend  fights  a  duel  with  history,  assails  the  logic  of 
events,  considers  mankind  mistaken  in  what  it  remem 
bers  or  forgets,  holds  his  own  recollection  of  more 
worth  than  the  oblivion  of  ages,  and  Cato-like  tells  the 
gods  they  have  prospered  the  wrong  cause,  which  is 
an  accident  that  does  not  occur ;  but,  by  his  temper 
of  devotion  and  trust  in  the  Most  High,  he  is  saved 
from  all  just  accusation  of  unbelief.  When  shall  we 
learn  that  one  thing  is  sacred,  —  our  thought?  We 


222  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

assassinate  our  own  liberty  when  we  condemn  our 
neighbor's.  Liberal  Christianity  hates  its  offspring, 
like  a  parent  scolding  an  inherited  propensity  in  his 
child.  But  beware  your  prescription  of  terms  !  Has 
the  man  no  faith  who  sacrifices  life  to  duty,  thinking 
all  is  over,  and  expecting  nothing  beyond,  —  facing 
annihilation,  and  not  asking  to  continue?  Demand  ar 
ticles  of  faith?  My  love  has  none  ;  nor,  when  perfect, 
has  my  health.  If  I  descend  to  particulars,  and  talk 
of  my  head,  stomach,  or  heart,  disease  has  begun. 
Soundness  is  the  light  and  happy  bearing  of  the  whole 
frame,  and  faith  of  the  undivided  mind.  Curiosity 
about  our  beginning,  or  dogmatism  about  our  end,  is 
defection  from  Faith,  which  contemplates  only  exist 
ence  ;  and,  no  more  heeding  death  than  butterfly  or 
bird,  sees  only  a  path  of  morning-glory  without  end. 
Faith  goes  on,  not  needing  to  take  an  observation.  It 
is  no  resignation  of  office  or  winding-up  of  affairs, 
but  proceeding  to  do  business,  and  not  take  off  our 
clothes  till  we  go  to  bed.  It  is  like  the  Western 
pioneer,  or  traveller  that  halts  for  but  an  hour.  The 
Yankee  in  Italy  glanced  at  the  Apollo  Belvedere,  and 
told  his  attendant  to  check  it  in  the  list  of  curious 
objects,  as  he  must  pass  on  !  His  business  was  more 
important  than  the  statue.  The  wanderer  along  the 
rock-girdled  beach  never  finds  just  the  place  to  pause, 
while  Beauty  coyly  glides  before  to  toll  his  feet.  The 
man  of  science  cannot  rest,  though  he  find  out  the  chem 
istry  of  the  sun.  The  earth's  poor  clerkship  or  unread 
able  record  keeps  Darwin  on  the  stretch.  The  intellect 
would  circle  the  old  with  ever  new  generalization. 
Artist  or  inventor  has  visions  that  shed  scorn  on  his 


FAITH.  223 

performance  ;  and  no  character,  even  of  Christ,  without 
room  for  improvement.  Faith  means  this  conscious 
room.  The  infidel  is  he  that  asserts  finality  anywhere, 
makes  a  term  of  any  achievement  or  conception,  sees 
or  puts  a  block  in  the  eternal  road.  To  affirm  any  stop 
or  period  is  unbelief.  How  many  the  unbelievers  in 
full  communion  on  the  church-books  !  Some  astrono 
mers  say  the  earth  will  drop  into  the  sun  by  and  by, 
and  be  burnt  up.  Is  he  a  believer  who  asserts  a 
destruction  of  the  world,  ultimate  loss  of  millions  of 
souls,  the  running  out  of  human  nature,  and  ending 
of  the  race  of  virtue  at  the  tomb,  like  an  Olympic  game 
at  the  goal,  with  the  partial  saving  and  crowning  of  a 
few  victors  elect?  Choice,  confidential  friend  or  pri 
vate  secretary  of  the  Lord  as  he  may  deem  himself,  he 
does  not  properly  believe  at  all.  Faith  is  not  such  a 
murderer  of  hope.  To  vilify  our  kind,  or  despise 
ourself,  is  not  belief.  David,  crying  out  he  was  con 
ceived  in  sin  and  shapen  in  iniquity,  was  a  blasphemer. 
He  was  a  matricide,  shouldering  on  the  woman  that 
bore  him  his  own  guilty  lust :  and  they  renounce  God, 
with  him,  who  quote  his  language  to  the  point  of 
a  general  fall  and  woe. 

Calvinism  is  a  system  of  disbelief.  To  say  God  was 
disappointed  in  his  works,  repented  of  man's  creation, 
got  off  the  track  with  his  engine,  and  botched  his  busi 
ness  so  as  to  have  to  do  it  over  again,  is  worse  than 
atheism,  —  if  Bacon  be  right,  that,  rather  than  have 
us  think  ill  of  him,  God  would  not  have  us  think  of 
him  at  all.  Faith  is  the  feeling  that  creation  is  no  bad 
job,  bubble  that  has  burst,  or  mine  that  will  blow  up,  — 
but  a  master-piece,  with  no  flaw.  "  The  experiment 


224  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

has  not  succeeded,"  the  Harvard  professor  used  to  say 
to  his  class,  when  acid  and  alkali  failed  of  the  intended 
combinations  in  his  retorts.  Has  the  great  Experi 
menter  nothing  else  to  say  ?  To  declare  that  tragedy, 
not  triumph,  was  the  end  of  Jesus  ;  that  such  a  Son 
went  under,  with  the  heavens  deaf  and  dumb  to  his 
prayer ;  that  the  ruling  Power  said  to  him,  Dust  to 
dust  is  the  doom,  and  your  talk  of  ascension  is  a  foolish 
whim,  —  so  that,  as  in  Richter's  dreadful  dream,  now 
there  is  no  Christ,  —  Orthodoxy  would  hold  to  be  dire 
unbelief.  What  is  it,  then,  to  reckon  the  entire 
humanity  cast  away,  with  the  exception  of  a  favored 
minority  snatched  like  brands  from  the  burning,  —  God 
hard  of  hearing  to  myriads  of  souls  in  immemorial 
aeons  ?  A  father's  harsh  chastening  of  his  child  brings 
universal  blame ;  and  lately,  in  the  West,  certain  citi 
zens  hung  to  a  tree,  not  waiting  for  the  law,  an  abuser 
of  his  boy.  Yet  we  are  all  bound  for  prison,  in  the 
sentence  of  the  schools, — except  the  redeemed,  who 
seem  like  courtiers  obsequious  to  a  tyrant  because  per 
sonally  safe.  But  to  crook  the  knee  to  such  a  despot 
for  his  power  were  the  meanest  slavery  on  earth. 
Faith  is,  that  there  is  no  such  fatality ;  but  as  the  sea 
in  God's  chariot  of  cloud  is  a  cleanser  of  the  air  for 
man's  breath,  while  making  every  wave  a  span  of 
beauty  to  bridge  all  lands,  so  an  ocean  of  purity  is 
sufficient  antidote  to  all  sin.  Faith  says  that  no 
hurt  goes  to  the  centre,  no  stain  is  too  deep  to  take 
out,  no  wound  which  Divine  surgery  or  cautery  cannot 
tent.  The  soul  cannot  mortify.  The  stuff  we  are 
made  of  is  so  stout  the  texture  never  rots.  I  heard  a 
reformer  say,  There  is  essential  evil,  heart  malady  in- 


FAITH.  225 

curable,  an  everlasting  scar,  a  consequence  of  folly  we 
can  never  get  over,  but  must  be  left  hopelessly  behind, 
like  one  that  gives  out  on  the  march,  or  a  vessel  that 
lags  in  the  race.  Melancholy  want  of  faith  !  Total 
depravity  or  everlasting  penalty  ?  Why  argue  against 
it,  when,  if  it  be,  there  is  no  God,  there  being  nothing 
total  but  him  !  Even  sin  has  a  ministry,  and  is  one 
of  God's  sharpest  tools.  The  vilest  criminals  on  the 
scaffold  without  hypocrisy  commend  to  him  their  souls. 
"  The  mystery  of  iniquity"  teaches  some  clear  lessons. 
If  our  preaching  lose  edge  in  making  light  of  it,  the 
edge  is  turned  in  declaring  so  universal  an  experi 
ence  of  no  use.  Men  sometimes  do  wrong  or  doubt 
ful  things  from  an  impulse,  for  which  they  cannot 
account,  but  from  which  they  learn  wisdom.  The 
faults  of  Paul  and  Augustine  made  the  mould  in 
which  their  excellence  was  run  ;  and  "  Uriel,"  in  the 
poem,  well  doubts  if  the  old  deities  know  not,  though 
they  tell  it  never  to  the  younger,  that  naught  is  ill. 

Faith  says  that  destiny  is  not  doom.  The  jail,  to 
which  the  convict  goes,  is  no  object  of  his  faith.  He 
bows  to  the  verdict,  feels  the  sheriff's  hand  on  his 
collar,  surveys  the  machinery  of  the  law  in  jury  and 
judge,  hopes  for  no  reprieve  ;  yet  his  faith  stops  in 
no  visible  circumstance,  but  foreruns  beyond  calamity 
to  rescue  at  last.  It  is  no  demonstration  nor  conclusion 
in  the  head,  as  when  the  degrees  are  measured  in  a 
triangle  or  contents  of  a  geometrical  figure  ;  but  it  is 
the  rejecting  of  all  dimensions  in  our  lot.  The  sailor's 
endless  rope,  the  mechanic's  revolving  wheel  or  uni 
versal  joint,  the  spiral  stair  lifting  at  every  turn,  is  its 
type.  It  is  the  Tower  of  Babel  that  does  reach  heaven. 

15 


226  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

It  is  the  horoscope  of  paradise ;  and,  as  the  astron 
omer's  glass  can  compass  no  bound  of  sparkling  con 
stellations  and  conjunctions,  so  it  overleaps  every  wall 
of  time  or  space. 

It  is  not  in  propositions,  but  persons,  —  powers  alive, 
whose  relations  are  truth,  designs  goodness,  and  enter 
prises  joy,  —  to  lay  some  ocean-cable,  to  reach  a  North 
Pole,  or  knock  at  the  gates  of  shining  mansions. 
People  talk  of  faith  in  the  Bible.  It  is  impossible. 
You  may  blindly  believe  all  its  books  an  inspired 
summary  ;  but  no  scripture  can  be  the  object,  nor  more 
than  the  excitant  of  faith,  as  the  quick-silvered  cushion 
or  revolving  cylinder  is  of  electricity.  In  a  loose  use 
of  the  word,  I  may  have  faith  in  material  substances 
or  in  ideas  and  laws ;  but  strictly  only  in  persons,  in 
being  and  life.  There  may  be  acceptance  of,  but  no 
faith  in  miracle,  —  only  in  an  Ordainer  whose  mode  is 
order  ;  a  self-consistent  One,  who  turns  not  to  contradict 
himself,  and  cannot  be  outgeneralled  by  an  alien  force. 
Faith  is  faithfulness,  or  living  by  an  inward  law. 
David  calls  God's  word  a  light  to  his  feet.  But  no 
parchment  or  paper  ever  held  that  word  which  comes 
in  visions,  goes  running  swift  to  the  ends  of  the  world, 
and  is  published  only  in  deeds.  The  Greeks  had  hill 
top  signals  of  flame,  and  the  old  racers  handed  the 
torch  to  each  other.  But  there  is  a  candle  God  must 
light  in  the  soul.  He  goes  round  his  own  city,  and 
has  the  only  key  to  the  hall.  None  else  can  apply  the 
match  and  kindle  the  jet.  Opposite  rules  may  be 
gathered  from  between  the  sacred  lids  ;  formulas  are 
swallowed,  and  nice  customs  courtesy  to  great  kings. 
Louis  Napoleon  bent,  and  dodged  the  shot.  But  there 


FAITH.  227 

is  a  Marksman  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  careless 
if  monarch  or  peasant  come  in  his  range.  There  is 
a  bridge  whoever  passes  pays  toll,  a  tax  impartially 
levied,  a  custom-house  remitting  the  duty  for  no  bribe, 
a  road  with  no  free  passes,  and  a  concert  where  no 
dead-head  hears  the  song.  The  mercy  is  not  that  the 
law  swerves,  but  that  it  does  not  slay.  The  storm 
rises  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind,  with  thunders  to  wreck 
the  world.  How  the  wheels  rattle,  and  the  steaming 
vapor  rolls  round  the  sparkling  heat !  But  the  crash 
goes  by.  Up  the  valley  for  miles  the  sun  turns  the 
rain  to*  silver  drops.  Rainbow  on  rainbow  hangs 
double  assurance  on  the  flying  cloud.  The  green 
gloom  hurries  seaward,  and  white  sails  scud  home 
faster  for  the  gale.  In  an  hour  all  is  clear  and  sweet 
in  the  sanctified  sky.  Is  it  law,  or  is  it  grace? 

All  the  faiths  have  one  root,  like  all  the  mountains, 
shooting  from  one  bulb.  God  judge  betwixt  me  and 
thee  ends  dispute.  Inquisition  or  victim  appeals  to 
the  same  court.  Father  Taylor,  seeing  a  half-dozen 
white  martin-boxes  of  churches  in  a  country  town,  said, 
"  You  have  war  here  !  "  But,  like  hunters  or  explorers 
scattering  their  forces  to  find  the  same  game  or  gold, 
every  sect  adores  one  Spirit,  whether  by  Quaker 
dumbness,  Methodist  shouting,  or  Romish  cross.  One 
painter  uses  high  colors  for  his  landscape,  and  another 
low.  Is  the  first  Episcopal,  and  the  second  Rational? 
Both  are  true.  My  neighbor's  Orthodoxy  is  a  piquant 
relish  in  his  society.  Dr.  Bushnell  can  swallow  creeds 
as  Mirabeau  did  formulas,  seeing  the  centre  of  the 
target  they  all  hit.  Elihu  Burritt  or  Mary  Lowell 
Putnam  can  translate  languages  at  once  into  each 


228  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

other.  No  word  suffices  for  the  thought ;  so  we  use 
many,  as  a  surveyor  his  triangular  series  for  a  meas 
ure.  When  love  repeated  and  overworked  sounds 
sentimental,  we  say  truth)  and  Allah  is  refreshing 
when  God  has  become  trite. 

Our  faith  is  better  than  we.  We  pretend  surprise 
at  the  gyrations  and  self-inflictions  of  fakir  and  dervish, 
and  barbarities  of  bull-fights,  still  the  sport  of  Spain. 
But  we  murder  Indians,  and  drink  blood,  like  the  base 
woman  in  Scripture  wiping  her  lips  and  saying, 
"What  have  I  done?"  No  speech  of  Owyhee  or 
Japan  is  more  brutal  than  the  last  report  of  slaughter 
from  the  commander  of  our  troops,  whose  abolition 
of  humanity  no  savage  ever  matched.  But  American 
religion  takes  it  as  bread  and  wine  from  the  com 
munion-board.  The  air  is  full  of  spirits,  buzzing  like 
so  many  bees  in  our  bonnet ;  but  none  help  us  to  be 
merciful  or  just.  The  Church  says  to  the  world,  Stand 
apart,  I  am  holier  than  thou,  yet  brings  forth  no  bet 
ter  fruit.  "  That  is  a  Magdalen"  said  a  visitor, 
pointing  to  a  picture  on  the  wall.  "  No  :  a  St.  Cecilia," 
was  the  host's  reply.  "  Well,"  rejoined  the  guest,  "  at 
this  distance,  my  eyes  are  so  poor  I  can  scarce  tell 
sinner  from  saint."  We  ask  dreadful  questions.  Are 
communicants  nobler  than  those  who  partake  not  of 
the  elements?  Are  members  of  good  society  more 
generous  than  Bohemians?  Are  preachers  less  jeal 
ous  than  artists  or  actors?  I  suspect  a  reputation  for 
sanctity,  under  which  men  do  unsaintly  things.  What 
is  uncleanness  but  conscious  cleanness,  or  a  sense  of 
dirt  that  cannot  bear  a  mote,  and  insanely  spends 
life  in  removing  every  speck?  But  innocent  childhood 


FAITH.  229 

plays  in  the  mud.  Only  the  invalid  is  annoyed  by 
foul  weather.  Hazlitt  says  the  Italian  lazzaroni  let 
the  fleas,  that  craze  nice  ladies,  creep  unmolested  over 
their  naked  limbs.  Unworthy  men  most  warmly 
resent  offences,  swear  at  whoever  imitates  their  mis 
takes,  and  confronts  them  with  a  copy  of  their  own 
sins.  "  To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure  ;  "  but  nothing 
to  such  as  have  "  their  own  mind  and  conscience  de 
filed."  Am  I  elect,  my  seat  secured  at  the  table  or 
among  the  dignitaries  on  the  platform  ?  In  that  per 
suasion  I  am  lost.  Do  we  lift  our  eyes  to  God  ?  He 
is  as  low  under  our  feet  as  high  above  our  head. 
After  mounting  over  the  Swiss  passes,  Spliigen,  Stel- 
vio,  and  Great  St.  Bernard,  I  came  to  the  Finster- 
miinz,  a  tremendous  gulf  grander  than  the  lofty  pitch. 
The  divine  glory  is  in  his  condescension.  His  humility 
is  sublimer  than  his  exaltation  above  the  clouds.  Our 
conceptions  affect  our  conduct.  Some  creeds  demor 
alize.  But  the  idolater  goes  into  the  kingdom  before 
the  money-maker ;  and  his  wit  was  not  far,  who, 
being  shown  two  portraits  of  thievish  stock-operators, 
wondered  that  of  Jesus  was  not  hung  between ! 
Consistency  would  require  too  many  crucifixions.  We 
are  hurt  by  our  conceit  of  progress  ;  and  suck  a  subtle 
poison  from  our  songs  of  deliverance, 

"Which  kings  and  prophets  waited  for, 
And  sought,  but  never  found." 

Are  we  so  well,  and  were  our  predecessors  so  badly 
off?  So  the  Orthodox  chants,  and  the  Liberal  follows 
suit.  But  there  was  light  and  color  in  the  world  be 
fore  we  were  born.  Mists  rose  to  be  clothed  in  beauty. 


230  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Gently  fell  the  twilight  and  dew.  There  was  joy  in 
life  and  hope  in  death,  or  content  to  cease  and  give 
place.  In  the  Christian  era  came  Hamlet's  question, 
"  To  be,  or  not  to  be."  I  have  heard  Christian  men 
and  women  say  they  have  no  complaint  of  annihi 
lation,  if  that  be  for  the  universe  best ;  as  the  Indian 
folded  his  arms,  sang  his  death-song,  and  went  over 
Niagara  in  his  canoe. 

Be  it  what  it  may,  that  is  not  sad  which  we  can 
sing  about.  Something  delicious  is  there  in  a  funeral 
hymn  or  dirge,  with  trumpet  and  muffled  drum,  of 
the  dead  march  over  the  soldier's  grave.  A  friend 
told  me  of  the  sweetness  of  the  dying  chime  of  bells, 
in  a  foreign  town,  as  a  figure  of  his  fading  life.  Does 
not  this  feeling  mix  in  the  cadence  of  every  bell  that 
tolls?  The  child  said  it  tired  her  to  think  of  living  for 
ever.  The  Oriental  Nirwana  is  understood  in  the  Oc 
cident.  But  being  equal  to  cessation  is  the  strongest 
proof  of  continuance.  The  creature  has  title  to  live, 
that  can  surrender  its  life.  Can  a  fly  do  it?  Said  a 
hearer  of  my  sermon  :  "  men  are  not  worth  saving." 
But  the  doctrine  of  depravity  is  proof  of  nobility.  Who 
found  it  out?  No  goat  or  wolf,  serpent  or  tiger,  is 
ashamed  of  itself,  or  ever  saw  the  plague  of  its  own 
heart.  The  man  that  first  discovered  his  sin  wrent  fur 
ther  than  Columbus.  Nothing  but  virtue  could  ever  be 
come  aware  of  vice.  Does  not  good  taste  detect  discord 
in  music,  deformity  in  a  posture,  or  disproportion  in  a 
building?  How  else  is  ugliness  discerned  in  the  charac 
ter?  Chief  of  sinners  are  you?  To  decide  that,  you 
must  be  expert  professor  of  morals.  That  forth-putting 
woman  does  not  move  us  like  the  gentle-voiced  one 


FAITH.  231 

by  her  side,  unanxious  to  lead.  Set  up  your  ideal 
standard,  see  yourself  overhung  as  with  the  constella 
tion  Libra  by  the  higher  law,  hold  yourself  amenable 
to  a  perfect  tribunal,  and  worthy  of  hell-fire  ;  and  then 
declare  yourself  worthless  and  corrupt  utterly?  This 
self-depreciation  is  native  grandeur,  the  foil  of  goodness 
and  bond  of  honor.  Self-condemnation  is  God's  abso 
lution  ;  and  pleading  guilty,  acquittal  at  his  bar. 

Presumption  of  our  own  righteousness  is  a  pest. 
Who  has  not  seen  in  the  house  some  king  or  queen 
who  can  do  no  wrong,  and  will  take  no  counsel ;  is 
omniscient  to  decide  every  point,  with  brazen  impu 
dence  bluffs  oft'  objection,  lies  every  day  with  pretence 
of  information,  and  ends  in  that  chronic  wilfulness,  or 
insanity  of  the  will,  for  which  no  asylum  is  provided, 
yet  mortal  cannot  endure,  and  gets  rid  of  by  a  divorce 
or  putting  the  globe  between  ?  This  head-strong  self- 
confident  temper  check  on  its  first  appearance  in  your 
child.  Tell  me  not,  O  fond  parent,  you  would  not 
break  its  will !  In  wilfulness  the  will  is  not  preserved, 
but  destroyed. 

Faith  is  a  moral  quality,  whose  antithesis  is  disloyal 
ty.  Hypocrisy  is  the  shell  after  the  kernel  is  eaten  out 
Something  more  than  intellect  must  keep  the  faith. 
Unfaithfulness  is  worse  than  death,  and  opens  a  deeper 
sepulchre  than  can  be  dug  in  the  ground.  The  deceit 
ful  companion  is  farther  off  than  any  stranger.  As  a 
man  leaves  a  temple,  you  feel  the  traitor  going  out  of 
the  inner  sanctuary.  Though  all  seem  fair  on  the 
surface  between  you,  and  you  laugh  and  play  with 
him  still,  he  cannot  without  repentance  return.  All 
religious  faith  has  the  same  spiritual  property  to 


232  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

resolve  bulk  of  theology  and  body  of  divinity  into 
simple  persuasion  that  our  Author  will  be  true.  Amid 
the  glory  of  Nature,  no  sentence,  of  others  or  my  own, 
will  express  my  conviction.  Before  the  stress  of  my 
trial  no  rampart  of  sect  will  stand.  My  metaphysics 
dissolve  like  fog  burnt  off  by  the  sun.  My  citadel 
goes  as  a  Minot's  Ledge  light-house  under  the  storm. 
But  I  see  the  arm  of  God  by  day,  and  I  feel  it  in  the 
gloom. 

We  make  out  a  case  for  Christianity  by  calling 
Nature  unmerciful.  But  what,  if  not  pity,  mean 
these  warnings,  —  before  earthquakes,  eruptions,  or 
billows  hastening  to  cut  off  the  beach,  and  mutterings 
of  the  tempest  prior  to  the  bolt?  "  Breakers  ahead  " 
is  the  cry  of  alarm.  But  how  curiously  the  peril  is 
announced  to  the  eye  by  the  whitening  wave,  and  in 
the  night  to  the  ear  by  the  peculiar  sound,  —  the  rattle 
of  the  sea-serpent  answering  to  that  of  the  land ! 
Mercy  is  no  after-thought  of  a  Being  who  has  to 
make  up  his  mind,  but  the  constitution  of  matter  and 
human  nature.  A  man  carries  a  few  wild  roses  to  a 
sick  woman's  room.  Long  years  after,  sick  in  his 
turn,  he  finds  the  flowers  out  of  their  ashes  blooming 
in  her  memory,  as  she  returns  his  service  a  hundred 
fold.  Nothing  so  natural  as  the  supernatural  help 
that  makes  all  duty  or  calamity  light.  Is  your  task  or 
lesson,  act  or  speech,  easy?  Watch  the  kind  of  ease  ! 
There  is  the  facility  of  garrulity,  and  that  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Faith  sees  blessing  prevail  over  bane,  man's 
wrath  a  note  of  praise,  evil  a  servant  of  good,  and  the 
assassin's  dagger  in  God's  hand,  to  save  a  nation  when 
a  martyr  is  made  of  its  Chief.  His  providence  no 


FAITH.  233 

belief  can  sum.  I  take  an  inventory  of  my  religious 
effects.  They  are  not  a  cent  on  a  dollar  of  my  debt. 
I  cannot  pay,  and  must  break.  What  an  assumption, 
that  you  can  put  the  account  on  a  page  of  rhetoric,  in 
a  syllogism  of  your  logic,  and  balance  the  books  with 
God! 

Faith  is  not  a  constant  quantity,  but  an  unvarying 
quality.  There  are  no  gulfs  between  men.  As  the 
slate  and  granite  and  trap-rocks  all  come  to  the  surface, 
so  the  antiquary  can  forego  his  search,  find  all  opin 
ions  present,  and  have  a  section  of  the  world  in  every 
age.  Comparative  Theology  has  not  exhausted  its 
illustrations.  The  Chinaman's  sending  his  body 
across  the  Pacific  for  burial  repeats  Egyptian  em 
balmment  and  the  superstition  of  all  nations  about  the 
grave.  Brigham  Young,  as  naturalist  and  house 
holder,  is  our  King  Solomon  ;  the  medium,  a  relation 
of  the  witch  of  Endor.  The  tripod  becomes  an  exten 
sion-table,  with  raps  instead  of  voices  ;  the  sibyl's  cave, 
a  wainscot  at  twilight.  Mr.  Home  can  show  us  in 
himself  the  bodily  ascension  of  Jesus  and  Elijah. 
John  was  mistaken  for  the  Messiah  whose  shoe-latchet 
he  was  not  worthy  to  unloose,  and  Christ  for  Elias  or 
some  old  prophet  come  again.  The  grandfather  re 
appears  in  that  blue-eyed  babe  of  two  black-eyed 
parents.  In  short  human  nature  is  one,  despite  all 
variations.  He  is  a  Hottentot,  we  say  of  some  stupid 
groveller  ;  he  is  a  Turk,  of  some  cruel  husband.  The 
Esquimaux,  drinking  train-oil,  feeds  no  more  grossly 
than  the  man  in  broadcloth.  Seeing  his  brother's 
unhappy  self-exhibition,  a  great  man  said,  "  There  is 
something  in  him  like  me."  "  His  blood  is  like 


234  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ours ! "  cried  a  French  peasant  at  the  execution  of 
Louis  XVI.  "  Yes,"  said  Fox  the  English  preacher  ; 
"  and  therefore  it  should  not  have  been  shed."  Goethe 
declared  there  was  no  sin  he  could  not  have  committed, 
and  John  Wesley  saw  himself  in  the  thief.  /  am  a 
man,  and  nothing  human  from  me  alien,  brought 
down  the  house,  on  the  Roman  stage.  There  is  a 
parallelism  in  the  proverbs  of  all  nations.  We  have 
a  hook  for  every  eye  of  old  speculation,  and  can  button 
our  creed  with  one  fifty  centuries  ago. 

Action  or  opinion  has  its  ancient  counterpart. 
Sheridan  has  the  dash  of  Hannibal,  Grant  the  pru 
dence  of  Scipio,  and  Sherman  does  in  Georgia  what 
Xenophon  did  in  Persia.  Stone  tools  and  weapons 
from  antique  caverns  show  the  same  art  with  our 
shops,  railways,  and  mills.  The  exigencies  of  Cali 
fornia  mining  have  reinvented  ancient  tools.  Our 
iniquities  are  as  inveterate  as  our  merits.  We  marvel 
at  the  Jew's  contempt  for  the  Gentile  who  was  wiser, 
the  Greek  who  was  more  polished,  and  the  Samaritan 
who  was  more  gracious  than  himself.  But  our  Chinese 
prejudice  is  thicker  than  the  famous  wall.  Are  not 
heathen  and  pagan  terms  we  apply  to  better  men 
than  ourselves?  When  the  Presbyterian  priest  would 
force  his  way  into  Calhoun's  dying-chamber,  "  Fool !  " 
cried  the  statesman,  "  to  think  he  can  teach  me  things 
I  have  considered  all  my  life  !  "  We  fancy  the  prob 
lems  are  solved.  But  every  question  is  open.  We 
float  with  our  Fathers  on  the  same  sea  of  wonder,  and 
sail  out  of  and  into  the  same  horizon  of  shade.  We 
cry  for  the  same  solace,  — 

"  And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 


FAITH.  235 

What  a  benighted  man,  to  talk  of  pre-existence,  do 
they  hold  Plato,  who  have  learned  the  precise  fact  of 
man's  creation  from  the  dust !  But  Orthodoxy  in  our 
day  repeats  the  doctrine.  Dr.  Beecher  thinks  it  were 
mean  for  God  to  create  us  with  a  blot,  like  the  blood 
stain  no  water  can  wash  from  the  floor,  or  a  piece  of 
damaged  goods.  So  we  must  have  sinned  in  a  prior 
state  ;  and  our  punishment  is  in  the  depravity  with 
which  we  were  born.  Jesus  pre-existed,  we  say. 
Why  not  everybody,  if  he  was  a  man  ?  He  abolished 
death.  But  God  chooses  no  favorites.  We  die  like 
those  before  us.  There  is  no  unmixed  truth  in  sacred 
history,  nor  unmixed  error  in  profane.  On  a  column, 
in  a  carriage,  cupola,  or  balloon,  I  am  upheld  by  the 
same  earth  ;  and  in  all  my  metaphysics  or  common 
sense  I  have  one  Uplifter.  Isaac  Watts  sings  of  the 
"basis"  that  belong  as  much  to  Paine  or  Voltaire. 
Men  try  to  be  sharp  and  get  the  best  bargain.  But 
I  stand  in  awe  before  the  justice  none  can  escape. 
You  can  take  no  advantage  of  God.  You  will  have 
no  joy  beyond  your  measure  ;  and  I  have  not  suffered 
too  much.  His  car  rolls  on  a  law  harder  than  steel, 
resisting  every  hammer  or  file.  To  the  mind's  eye 
matter  disappears.  Order  and  motion  alone  remain 
for  his  vehicle  and  will. 

Sects  are  as  ships,  whose  common  is  the  ocean,  but 
each  with  its  own  mooring  in  port.  The  thinker  sails 
where  he  will.  The  Free-Thinker  encounters  the 
Creed-Bound  on  the  high  seas  of  literature,  politics, 
art,  and  general  conversation  :  only  they  run  in  when 
clouds  rise,  to  cast  anchor  in  dogma  ;  and  he,  like  a 
Red  Rover,  holds  on  his  course.  But  both  are  one  in 


236  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Faith,  which  starts  with  Spirit.  Unbelief  dates  from 
the  dust,  and  has  only  that  mechanical  notion  of  Infin 
ity  which  it  shares  with  the  brute,  who  also  sometimes 
seems  in  the  creation  to  feel  overpowered.  But  it  is 
only  a  Finite  extended.  Nothing  is  infinite  but  the 
soul.  Space  is  but  one  of  the  fields  it  works  in.  Our 
intellect  is  classified  by  what  it  begins  with.  "  Hath 
the  rain  a  father,  and  who  hath  begotten  the  drops  of 
dew?"  asks  Job.  It  makes  a  difference  if  I  consider 
that  the  rain  is  my  father  and  the  dew  my  mother,  — 
that  my  generation  is  in  the  particles,  not  in  my  being 
thought  of  before  I  came,  and  coming  because  of  me 
there  could  be  a  thought.  There  is  but  one  question  ; 
and  the  battle  is  drawn.  All  who  hold  the  elements 
for  their  origin  are  on  one  side,  and  those  who  derive 
from  the  Elemental  Power  on  the  other.  Even  the 
animals,  in  their  worship  of  man,  have  an  obscure  feel 
ing  of  a  source  above  the  clay.  "  Be  patient,"  I  said 
to  the  dog  who  offered  me  his  fore  foot  to  shake : 
"  your  paw  shall  become  a  hand  by  and  by."  We 
speak  of  the  body  we  are  members  of.  A  man's  cul 
ture  is  measured  by  the  largeness  of  the  community 
he  consciously  belongs  to.  Friends  and  relations, 
our  social  class,  the  municipality,  the  commonwealth, 
the  country,  the  Pilgrim  stock,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
human  race,  and  all  intelligence  from  the  seraph  to 
the  beast,  are  so  many  ascending  marks  on  the  scale 
of  dignity.  Never  was  a  nobler  name  than  "  Com 
mune"  but  for  want  of  the  commune  vinculum.  If 
justice  be  the  bond,  the  cause  is  international.  If 
division  of  property,  irrespective  of  industry,  worth, 
and  ability,  be  the  aim,  it  means  universal  robbery  and 


FAITH.  237 

poverty.  It  is  arithmetical  or  geometrical  progres 
sion  of  all  the  pirates  that  ever  beset  the  land  or 
roamed  the  sea. 

Faith  is  not  a  conclusion,  but  a  quest.  It  is  confi 
dence  in  a  right  we  can  reach,  which  grows  more 
fine  and  tempts  us  on  for  ever.  Mr.  Martineau's 
title,  "  Endeavors  after  a  Christian  Life,"  was  ridiculed 
as  implying  what  he  had  not  attained.  But  who  has 
attained?  Attainment  were  a  block  in  the  path,  a 
blind  alley,  the  great  stone  rolled  against  the  door  of 
the  sepulchre.  If  Jesus  be  not  more  and  better  than 
he  was  on  earth,  then  he  is  dead,  and  never  rose.  I 
never  meet  a  man  but  to  inquire  my  way.  I  am 
thankful  not  only  for  the  Inner  Light,  but  for  the  road 
which  generations  have  made  and  trod.  We  com 
plain  of  every  stone  and  turn  in  the  winding  and  un 
even  way  over  which  we  walk  or  drive.  But  do  we 
think  how  much  digging  and  blasting  it  cost?  Only 
to  its  termination  in  any  forerunner's  steps  let  us 
object.  Even  the  great  Example  is  not  the  finality, 
possibility,  and  flying  horizon  of  the  human  mind. 
For  creatures  who  are  in  a  new  coil  of  the  chain  of 
habit  every  year,  what  a  dignity  death  adds  to  life,  as 
a  winding-up  of  involved  accounts,  and  setting  us  up 
in  this  business  of  character  again  !  The  Church  is  but 
provisional,  and  must  not  complain  of  those  who  find 
no  communion  in  the  cold  passing  round  of  the  loaf 
and  cup,  but  are  driven  to  the  oracle  within.  "  Is  it 
wicked,"  said  one,  "  to  play  croquet  on  Sunday,  and 
not  go  to  church?"  "Yes,"  was  the  answer,  "if  it 
be  a  wicked  thought."  But  pious  scandal  of  your 
neighbors  is  worse. 


238  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Depravity  may  be  unconscious  ;  but  sin  is  the  sense 
of  sin,  and  faith  is  the  feeling  of  spirit.  Great  is  our 
debt  to  the  explorations  of  matter  that  distinguish  the 
age.  But  the  results  only  point,  to  a  higher  method  we 
must  reach.  The  microscope  throws  the  glory  of  the 
telescope  into  the  shade,  by  its  revelations  of  that  vital 
structure  which  concerns  us  more  than  all  the  splendor 
of  the  sky.  "  This  star  with  a  tail  spinheth  round 
that  other :  let  it  spin,"  we  say  with  the  Turkish  cadi. 
But  if  the  secrets  of  health  and  disease  can  be  dis 
closed  by  the  physiologist,  he  more  than  Herschel 
or  Leverrier  shall  have  our  thanks.  Yet  mind  and 
conscience  elude  the  keenest  lens.  God  or  man  will 
never  be  seen  through  a  glass,  even  darkly.  The 
protoplasm,  which  Mr.  Huxley  describes  as  the  phys 
ical  basis  of  life,  is  composed  of  several  principles, 
behind  which  the  mystery  of  being  is  intrenched  ;  and 
when  you  shall  have  got  the  tiles  of  all  fashions  used 
in  this  castle  of  creation,  the  Power  that  lays  them  in 
order  is  still  to  seek,  whom  no  magnifier  will  ever 
detect  among  the  atoms  or  the  orbs.  But  what  we 
cannot  grub  up  out  of  the  dirt,  or  overtake  on  the 
comet's  trail,  our  nature  shares.  God,  says  the  phys 
icist,  is  unknown  and  unknowable.  But  to  the  spirit 
nothing  is  known  so  well,  in  that  self-knowledge  of 
God  and  man,  knowing  each  himself  in  the  other, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  all  knowledge.  What  is 
knowledge?  An  impression  on  the  senses,  picture  in 
the  eye,  or  sound  in  the  ear?  I  know  the  ship  when 
I  have  numbered  its  sails,  and  shrouds,  and  masts. 
I  can  call  it  sloop  or  schooner,  frigate  or  brig.  I 
know  the  bird  or  fish  or  plant,  when  I  have  analyzed 


FAKH.  239 

its  organism,  and  assigned  its  class.  But  I  do  not 
know  the  Deity,  at  whose  least  whisper  of  duty  in  my 
breast  I  am  eager  to  work,  ready  to  suffer  and  die  ! 
The  youth  and  beauty  of  our  Israel,  that  fell  in  high 
places  or  low  ones  of  battle,  knew  not  why  !  I  deny 
the  materialist's  definition.  As  to  your  "  knowledge," 
said  the  cadi  to  Layard,  "  I  defile  it."  Limiting  the 
term  to  an  understanding  of  external  objects  put  in 
rows  deserves  the  contempt  of  all  to  whom  the  unseen 
is  real,  and  ideas  are  entities  which  cast  as  shadows 
the  sun  and  moon.  Nature  is  no  dualism.  Yet  the 
words  spirit  and  matter  must  be  used.  The  only 
question  is,  Who  heeds  the  laws  of  language  best?  Sci 
ence,  the  foe  of  Superstition  and  destroyer  of  ground 
less  beliefs,  is  friend  of  Faith,  and  relays  its  foundation 
beneath  frost  or  flood.  It  is  teaching  that  force  is  not 
quantity,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  size,  but  every 
thing  according  to  our  optical  apparatus  —  giant  or 
dwarf —  and  the  resistless  energies  too  subtile  for  sight 
or  touch.  All  is  the  same  Proteus  in  manifold  modes. 
Every  entry  that  is  opened,  shaft  sunk,  tunnel  bored, 
organic  or  inorganic  latch  lifted,  leads  to  one  point, 
which  is  centre  and  circumference  alike,  —  a  Unity  we 
have  as  yet  no  better  name  for  than  God,  but  whose 
suggestion  is  not  from  time  or  nature,  but  the  soul. 
O  student  of  these  fair  appearances,  observer  of  this 
ghost  of  God  we  call  the  world !  before  you  close  the 
catalogue,  account  for  yourself.  Will  you  tell  us  why 
you  are  here  ?  Who  woke  your  curiosity,  and  started 
you  on  your  track  ?  Was  there  no  Instigator  of  your 
researches,  or  Source  of  your  delight?  What  is  the 
name  of  That  which  persuades  you  not  chaos,  but 
cosmos,  is  all  ? 


240  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

In  Paul's  trinity  of  graces,  love  is  greatest.  But 
the  love  that  fondles  is  not  so  good  as  the  faith  which 
forgives  and  expects,  and  abolishes  antipathy.  The 
feeling  to  a  fellow-creature  which  makes  him  dear, 
though  he  will  not  further  or  vote  for  you,  nor  come  to 
hear  you  lecture  or  preach,  is  worth  more  than  all 
the  superficial  amiableness  ever  poured  out.  This 
confidence  is  the  essence,  the  great  wheel  on  which 
all  lesser  ones  turn,  the  kingdom  to  which  all  else  is 
added,  the  condition  on  which  our  actions  will  take 
care  of  themselves.  u  What  are  you  doing?  "  it  was  said 
to  a  noble  young  person.  "  As  usual,  nothing,"  she 
replied.  But  it  was  enough  such  sweetness  of  spirit, 
purity  of  look,  and  beauty  of  manners  should  exist. 
There  would  be  no  wrong  or  waste  activity,  and  no 
pride  of  accomplishment,  as  in  the  busybody  that 
meddles  with  other  people's  matters,  and  clothes  him 
self  in  his  own  righteousness.  Who  needs  your  haste 
and  sweat,  and  superserviceable  interference  ? 

The  creed  touches  the  character.  In  the  rebellion 
against  Rome  of  Protestantism,  in  the  recoil  from 
Orthodoxy  of  Liberality,  and  the  large  field  we  have 
won  of  unfettered  judgment,  our  dogmatism  has  begot 
indifferentism.  We  say,  No  matter  what  a  man  thinks, 
if  he  lives  right.  Liberty  has  become,  instead  of  a 
means,  the  end.  One  being  asked  which  he  pre 
ferred,  faith  in  God  or  freedom,  answered,  My  free 
dom.  But  when  free  love,  free  trade,  free  rum,  and  free 
religion  are  the  mottoes,  we  ask  what  curb  will  keep 
this  wild  horse  of  freedom  from  running  away  with 
us.  You  look  to  your  harness  when  you  are  going  to 
take  a  ride.  Keep  a  tight  rein  on  this  span  of  free- 


FAITH.  241 

inquiry  and  free-will,  to  hold  them  to  the  King's  high 
way.  Without  conviction,  liberty,  like  a  ship  carrying 
too  much  sail,  ploughs  under.  What  is  the  use  of  your 
independence?  What  is  the  freedom  of  the  seas  for? 
To  sail  about  aimless  and  shoot  into  every  inlet  for 
sport ;  or  like  that  Alabama,  burnt  and  branded  for 
ever  into  English  history,  to  make  free  with  other 
folk?  Freedom  is  a  bastard  unless  its  parent  be  Truth. 
No  matter  what  our  opinions  are  !  Is  it  any  matter 
what  a  man  eats,  but  not  what  he  puts  into  the  stomach 
of  his  mind,  a  French  novel  or  a  psalm?  Many  ways 
to  heaven?  Some  to  hell!  Stop,  as  did  the  young 
man  in  the  low  theatre  when  he  read  in  capitals  over 
the  door,  To  the  Pit !  Are  you  going  to  the  rehearsal  ? 
There  is  a  rehearsal  for  every  thought,  ere  the  act,  be 
it  music  of  charity,  or  murder  in  the  Bussey  Woods, 
or  on  the  Brookline  road.  What  but  Sabbatarian 
superstition  stretches  into  intolerance  the  tether  of  the 
law,  to  shut  up  a  public  library  from  those  who  have 
no  church?  What  but  bigotry  made  one  ask,  "Shall 
we  have  only  Unitarians  and  infidels  on  the  platform 
to  celebrate  Italian  emancipation?"  Yet  a  certain 
minister  proclaims  his  adherence  to  the  same  old 
articles  held  forth  a  hundred  years  ago,  saying  he 
would  nail  them  on  his  church-door  for  a  sign.  So 
indeed  it  were  well  to  do  !  The  farmer  nails  mis 
chievous  birds  and  beasts  of  prey,  hawk  and  fox,  on 
his  barn-door.  The  trader  nails  base  coin  to  the 
counter.  I  saw  counterfeit  money  hung  up,  a  long 
row  of  bills,  in  a  city  warehouse.  Luther  nailed  his 
propositions,  a  placard  against  the  papal  bulls,  on 
the  German  cathedrals.  Such  doctrines  as  total 

16 


242  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

depravity  and  particular  election  abolish  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  and  deserve  any  exposure  of 
shame.  Were  the  Five  Points  in  New  York  named 
with  any  reference  to  the  Five  Points  of  Calvin?  They 
lead  to  the  same  despair  !  We  were  shocked  by  Taney's 
opinion  that  the  negroes  in  this  country  have  no  rights 
white  men  are  bound  to  respect.  But  the  abolitionists 
might  have  spared  him  the  length  of  their  lash.  This 
belief  was  founded  not  only  on  his  construction  of  the 
Constitution,  but  his  notion  of  slavery  as  a  heaven- 
ordained  institution  based  on  plenary  inspiration  of 
the  text.  Why  should  not  we  curse  Canaan  if  God 
did  ?  What  was  the  judicial  decision  but  part  of  the 
theological  one,  that  mankind  have  no  rights  He  is 
bound  to  respect?  Was  the  Divine  proceeding  in 
dooming  men  for  moral  inability  the  pattern  for  us  to 
match,  like  reverent  copyists  in  galleries  of  the  works 
of  the  great  masters,  or  tapestry-sewers  in  the  French 
shops?  This  the  lost  image  we  were  made  in  to  stencil 
in  our  demeanor  and  stitch  into  our  heart?  Has  the 
child  in  the  cradle  no  claims  on  you  ?  More  indefea 
sible  ones  have  we  all  on  God.  I  ask  him  to  justify 
my  existence :  nor  will  he  that  resented  not  Job's 
expostulation  condemn  my  demand,  but  satisfy  me 
my  creation  was  wisdom,  and  his  bestowment  of  life 
a  boon.  Though  my  fate,  like  an  engulfing  billow 
racing  after  the  vessel,  were  hard  at  my  heels,  one 
thing  is  needful :  his  conduct  must  be  such  as  while 
I  live  I  can  imitate  without  harm.  Is  he  unforgiving, 
remitting  only  with  blood?  I  shall  be  the  same. 
Did  he  punish  Jesus  in  our  stead?  Let  us  hunt  up 
scapegoats,  and  in  every  court  let  the  guilty  go  !  For 


FAITH.  243 

our  salvation  must  Christ's  body  and  blood  be  par 
taken  in  the  elements,  though  the  taste  of  wine  wake 
in  the  once  delivered  drinker  the  wolf  of  appetite?  Is 
the  Pope  infallible?  Then  a  kingdom  must  lie  in 
chains,  at  least  till  the  world  learn  to  laugh  at  a  pon 
tiff  no  more  able  than  the  astrologer  in  the  story  to 
predict  his  own  fate,  and  his  authority  be  blown  to 
pieces  by  a  new-born  nation's  breath. 

From  men's  persuasion  comes  their  course.  Whence 
cruelty  to  animals,  but  from  an  opinion  derived  from 
the  Hebrew  books,  and  customs  too,  that  we  are  their 
absolute  lords?  Trace  a  human  quality  in  beasts, 
make  them  our  relations,  and  our  new  estimate  will 
stand  them  in  better  stead  than  a  thousand  Bergh- 
societies.  Truth  is  moral.  "  Is  aught  wrong  in  the 
temper  of  my  articles?"  asked  a  bold  editor,  knowing, 
with  Goethe,  that  the  spirit  we  act  in  is  the  highest 
matter.  "  No,"  was  the  answer  :  "  your  sharpness  is 
not  for  yourself,  but  your  cause."  All  the  weapons  of 
God's  armory  we  are  to  wield  against  false  prophets. 
Wrath  and  ridicule  do  not  belong  to  selfish  men 
to  use,  but  to  enthusiasts  for  the  truth.  Let  them 
buckle  on  the  steel  against  His  adversaries,  and  draw 
the  sword,  and  poise  the  lance  of  holy  indignation  and 
scorn.  Would  you  bless  your  fellow,  do  not  so  much 
give  him  creature-comforts,  but  enlarge  his  view. 
Any  belief,  like  that  in  immortality,  is  sound  that 
promotes  the  common  weal.  God  made  us  not  for 
handiwork  alone,  but  to  behold  his  beauty. 

If  perfect  love  casteth  out  fear,  perfect  faith  casteth 
out  sorrow.  Do  we  weep  when  mature  fruit  is  gathered  ? 
Does  the  husbandman  mourn  over  his  sheaves?  What 


244  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

means  your  stubborn  grief  but  that  there  is  no  garner 
for  the  soul  ?  Is  it  not  only  the  shock  of  corn,  fully 
ripe  in  its  season,  that  is  gathered,  but  the  flowers  and 
the  buds  ?  Yet  we  pluck  them  from  the  garden  and 
the  field ;  and  the  human  blossoms,  like  those  that  had 
unfolded  in  a  coffin  on  its  way,  fulfil  their  promise  out 
of  our  sight. 


X. 

LAW. 

USE  different  words  as  we  may  for  diverse  aspects 
of  the  creation  or  moods  of  mind,  there  is  no 
distinction  between  law  and  person,  or  law  and  love. 
By  law  we  mean  the  Divine  method  or  habit,  not  an 
alien  power  to  constrain.  If  our  growing  knowledge 
convince  us  that  there  is  no  departure  from  the  line, 
we  do  not  believe  that  line  is  arbitrary,  or  was  ever 
laid  down  by  One  who  would  fain  leave  it  if  he  could  ; 
but  is  itself  expression  of  his  own  essence.  Truth, 
beauty,  goodness,  —  these  three  in  the  language  of  the 
schools  are  one  and  consubstantial. 

We  are  placed  in  the  world  amid  forces  we  cannot 
measure,  of  Nature  without  and  our  own  nature  with 
in  ;  liable  to  be  run  away  with  by  the  elements  and  our 
own  passions.  The  reins,  which  are  knowledge  and 
will,  are  put  in  our  hands ;  yet  we  shall  be  unseated 
and  ridden  over  unless  we  take  heed :  and  the  danger 
is  twofold,  —  from  other  driving  as  our  own.  As  an 
old  author  says,  we  are  like  ships  in  a  storm,  in  danger 
from  the  waves  and  each  other.  There  is  a  super 
stition  that  it  promotes  health  to  sleep  with  the  head 
to  the  north,  to  correspond  to  the  axis  of  the  globe. 
To  ride  backward  or  look  from  a  piazza  on  the  sea 


246  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

makes  some  persons  sick.  Farmer  or  sailor  knows 
he  can  make  the  elements  friends  or  foes,  —  difference 
of  pilot  being  the  only  reason  one  vessel  comes  to  port 
and  another  founders  in  the  same  gale.  "  Man  will 
be  happy,"  said  Spurzheim,  "  when  he  confines  him 
self  to  understand  and  find  ways  to  execute  his  Cre 
ator's  laws."  We  are  at  school  to  them  from  our 
infancy.  They  are  the  only  university.  The  child 
finds  that  his  throat  is  the  wrong  place  to  put  down 
the  gravel  he  plays  in,  that  the  fire  or  candle  does  not 
agree  with  his  fingers,  that  edge-tools  wrill  cut  hands 
taking  them  by  the  blade,  and  that  he  sits  down  very 
suddenly  on  the  floor  unless  circumspect  with  the 
muscles  upon  which  his  leg-practice  begins.  Nature 
and  our  nature  are  like  two  mutually  adjusted  clocks 
or  harps. 

This  sense  is  in  the  proverbs  and  cries  of  all  nations. 
"  Be  careful ! "  says  our  companion  when  we  step 
over  the  threshold,  or  on  the  stairs,  or  lift  the  baby, 
or  open  the  knife,  or  reach  for  the  razor,  or  cut  with 
the  scissors,  or  fasten  the  rope,  or  loose  the  main- 
sheet,  or  belay.  "  Look  out ! "  cries  the  Yankee 
coachman  ;  "  Prenez-garde  ! "  the  French  omnibus- 
driver  ;  "  Fire,  fire  ! "  the  rock-blaster.  The  steam- 
whistle  screams  far  off  to  clear  the  track  ;  the  red  or 
white  flag  of  the  signal-man  warns  horse  and  man  at 
the  crossing ;  the  watchman  springs  his  rattle  at  mid 
night-disturbance  ;  the  bell  is  rung  by  hand  or  by 
lightning  in  cities,  in  a  conflagration.  In  Teneriffe 
I  heard  the  Spanish  sentinel  cry  every  hour  in  the 
night,  "All  is  serene!"  as  if  the  citizens  must  be 
wakened  every  little  while  to  be  assured  they  might 


LAW.  247 

sleep  soundly.  "  Get  out  of  the  way  ! "  we  shout  to 
our  dearest  friends.  The  chariot  of  law  will  bear  us 
if  we  sit  in  it ;  its  wheels  worse  than  any  Juggernaut 
will  grind  us  if  we  be  in  the  opposition  to  His  Majes 
ty's  government.  It  is  not  the  train  that  I  see  arrive 
or  start,  but  His  statute  of  which  that  is  the  apparition. 
A  hundred  locomotives  go  through  the  tunnel  every 
day  ;  but  with  every  gesture  and  breath  His  decrees 
pass.  Do  you  think  retribution  is  postponed  till  the 
world  is  burnt  up,  and  the  trumpet  sounds  and  the 
general  judgment  dawns,  and  all  nations  assemble  at 
a  final  bar ;  and,  if  these  things  do  not  take  place,  you 
will  escape,  run  toll,  and  go  scot  free?  Your  punish 
ment  is  at  once.  An  impure  or  intemperate  man 
wrestles  with  a  law,  and  is  surer  to  be  thrown  than  if 
he  assailed  the  engine.  The  people  say  ironically  to 
a  man  who  has  blundered  against  a  wall  or  run  his 
craft  on  a  ledge,  "  Did  you  hurt  that  rock  any  ?  "  More 
than  by  any  disobedience  you  can  the  Divine  com 
mand  !  The  prudent  profligate,  who  thinks  not  to  in 
jure  his  body,  and  is  said  only  to  corrupt  innocence  in 
the  partner  of  his  guilt,  is  dying  out  in  the  centre,  like 
the  rotten  cocoa-nut,  whose  husk  only  hides  its  ill  odor. 
The  preachers  say,  "  Break  not  the  heavenly  laws  !  " 
But  a  law  was  never  broken.  The  law  breaks  us,  if 
we  try  which  of  the  two  is  best.  We  fight  a  duel  with 
God.  Jacob  wrestles  with  the  Most  High,  and  finds 
his  own  thigh  out  of  joint.  You  think  you  are  sharp 
when  by  some  ingenious  trick  you  make  what  you 
call  a  good  bargain.  You  are  stupid  not  to  know  it 
is  bad.  "  I  calculate  to  do  about  right,"  we  say. 
That  about  is  often  a  large  circumference,  a  good  way 


248  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

off  from  the  centre.  It  is  no  honor  to  hit  the  target 
on  the  rim.  "  Memorialize  congress,'*  it  was  said  to  a 
smuggler  complaining  of  the  confiscation  of  his  bark : 
"  they  will  do  you  justice."  "  Ah,"  he  replied,  "  that 
is  what  I  am  afraid  of!"  Whether  congress  will 
do  justice,  its  treatment  of  French  and  other  claims 
makes  us  doubt.  But  there  is  a  Legislator  wrho  will. 
No  fraud  or  robbery,  violated  purity  of  a  woman  or 
stained  honor  of  a  man,  outrage  that  makes  us  ask  if 
any  God  live  and  reign,  but  he  will  atone  to  every 
victim  and  make  the  unholy  victor  quake. 

We  speak  of  those  who  are  responsible,  being  in 
power.  In  some  power  the  weakest  of  us  are.  We 
call  it  the  will  of  God  when  our  disrespect  of  his  order 
turns  its  blessing  to  a  curse,  as  the  Turkish  captain 
condones  the  mismanagement  that  casts  away  his  ship, 
with  pious  ascription  to  fate.  "Just  my  luck  ! "  you 
say.  No,  your  fault !  "  His  providence  !  "  No,  your 
zV?zprovidence !  Piety  to  accept  the  miseries  which 
impiety  inflicts  ?  Not  so,  if  impiety  consists  not  alone 
in  profane  swearing,  but  in  disregard  of  conditions  the 
Being  you  worship  ordained.  It  is  time  to  cease  from 
our  false  baptism  of  the  calamities,  we  draw  on  our 
own  heads,  as  his  appointments,  and  the  unchristian 
christening  of  our  mistakes  as  his  inscrutable  wisdom  ; 
as  if  he  struck  us  when  we  wounded  ourselves,  or 
slew  us  when  we  committed  suicide  ;  as  if  the  typhoid 
fever,  as  his  angel,  came  out  of  the  well  that  com 
municates  with  the  receipt  of  ordure.  If  death  be  his 
messenger,  we  often  despatch  it.  If  he  make  out  its 
warrant,  he  leaves  it,  as  Horace  Mann  said,  to  every 
one  of  us  to  insert  the  date.  It  is  no  absolute  will. 


LAW.  249 

You  determine  it  for  yourself,  and  by  your  conduct  for 
your  husband,  wife,  child,  or  parent,  —  lengthening  out 
their  days  with  gracious  manners,  or  with  insult  stab 
bing  the  heart  to  bleed  life  prematurely  away,  and 
bringing  down  gray  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave. 
Father  it  upon  God,  will  you  ? 

I  accuse  not  Deity  of  these  horrors  and  ghastly  facts 
in  human  life.  Human  carelessness  is  the  misdoer 
and  homicide.  It  kills  a  thousand  to  one  beyond  every 
assassin  and  highwayman,  robber  on  the  land  or 
pirate  on  the  sea.  In  neglect  of  sanitary  rules  at  the 
table  and  in  the  relation  of  the  sexes,  in  private  un- 
sanctity  of  the  young,  in  unfit  or  defective  exercise  of 
body  and  mind,  in  all  its  undermining  or  overloading, 
its  detraction  from  human  vitality  outrivals  the  waste 
of  war,  all  whose  flaming  standards  measure  out  for 
mankind  the  fields  of  conflict,  but  not  the  wider  reaches 
of  their  fault.  Who  shall  weigh  the  woes  inuring,  like 
wrecks  and  heaps  of  sea-weed  cast  upon  the  shore, 
from  inconsideration  of  the  Truth  ? 

When  a  powder-mill  explodes,  or  a  ferry-boat  blows 
up,  or  a  locomotive  dragging  one  train  crashes  through 
another,  it  is  published  as  an  "  awful  accident"  No 
accident,  but  human  heedlessness ;  not  deliberate 
murder,  but  thoughtless  manslaughter.  The  mixing 
of  broken  wood  and  iron,  and  splintered  glass  and 
suffocating  steam,  amid  gasping  men  and  women,  is  as 
regularly  according  to  law  as  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
or  ebb  and  flow  of  the  sea.  Only  it  was  attempting 
to  proceed  against  law,  instead  of  with  it.  The  law 
goes  on  more  terrible  than  an  army  with  banners,  and 
the  fragments  are  left  bleeding  and  burning  behind. 


350  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

There  are  no  accidents.  Disorder  is  but  the  result  of 
our  blind  neglect  of  Order.  Our  defeat  is  in  order 
then.  The  carpenters  on  the  staging,  who  had  not 
nailed  the  support,  fell  to  the  ground  by  the  gravitation 
that  steadies  your  seat.  The  equilibrium  is  disturbed? 
Not  God's  or  Nature's,  when  we  miss  our  footing,  and 
are  overset.  "  I  did  not  know,"  you  say.  Of  all  par 
ties  the  Know-nothings  was  the  worst. 

But  is  there  no  mercy?  Never,  in  the  sense  of 
releasing  from  this  hug  of  Omnipotence  withstood. 
Suppose  the  unwilful  authors  of  the  so  indulgently 
denominated  mishap  could  have  been  let  off  from  the 
legitimate  issue  of  their  unlawful  course,  the  attractions 
of  matter  cancelled,  the  hot  vapor  held  back,  and  the 
coals  of  fire  forbidden  to  kindle :  we  should  not  know 
what  to  depend  upon.  God  and  Nature  would  be 
playing  fast  and  loose  with  us.  All  our  calculations 
would  be  disturbed.  We  should  be  put  completely 
out  of  our  reckoning,  and  not  be  under  tuition,  but  at 
a  juggler's  show.  Education  were  impossible.  When 
shall  we  learn  that  justice  is  not  one  thing,  and  pity 
another ;  but  Mercy  and  Truth  meet  together,  Right 
eousness  and  Peace  kiss  each  other,  and  the  Divine 
compassion  no  exceptional  attitude,  but  the  undeviat- 
ing  step? 

We  complain  that  the  innocent  suffer  from  the  errors 
of  the  guilty.  But  we  see  not  the  Hand  holding  the 
balance  of  redress,  death  being  the  pivot,  and  one 
scale  hanging  with  even  weight  on  the  immortal  side, 
however  tremulous  the  beam.  Who  shall  say  that  to 
the  blameless  departed  compensation  is  not  made? 
There  is  no  murmur  in  their  song.  They  have  no 


LAW.  25  I 

account  of  vengeance  to  make  up.  Earthly  law  may 
exact  recompense  ;  but  no  standing  grudge  beyond ! 
We  tread  on  graves.  Our  road  is  ashes.  The  roll 
ing  stock,  the  running  gear,  glides  swiftly  over  the 
spot  of  disaster  which  has  left  no  trace.  The  travel 
lers,  who  knew  not  it  was  a  way-station  for  heaven 
where  they  stopped,  on  a  higher  plane  proceed. 

There  was  one  for  whom  it  was  not  unmeet,  like 
Elijah,  to  go  in  the  chariot  of  fire.  In  the  spiritual 
fabric  he  spent  his  last  thread.  He  was  like  one  turn 
ing  the  wheel  when  the  wool  gives  out  on  the  spindle. 
The  fibre  of  his  frame  worn  out,  it  was  meet  he  should 
be  dismissed  from  the  field  for  refreshment,  and  that 
music  of  welcome  for  those  who  have  well  done.  One 
virtue,  of  patience,  that  went  against  the  fire  of  his 
nature,  and  high  pressure  of  his  speed,  is  for  him 
struck  from  the  list.  The  hireling  longs  for  the 
shadows  that  point  to  the  great  emancipation  of  the 
freedman's  dawn,  where  the  Lord  will  deal  gently 
with  him  who  has  dealt  severely  with  himself.  For 
Ezra  Stiles  Gannett  let  there  be  on  the  dry  page  of 
discussion  trace  of  a  loving  tear. 

But  the  whole  sweep  is  beyond  us.  We  can  reckon 
the  orbit  of  the  most  erratic  body  in  the  sky ;  but 
Providence  mocks  our  mathematics.  Yet  science  is 
doing  the  work  of  religion  in  reducing  phenomena 
under  the  range  of  law ;  and  no  libel  is  so  gross  as 
to  charge  it  with  serving  the  cause  of  atheism,  or 
unbelief,  in  disclosing  the  invariably  regular  march  of 
all  appearances  and  events.  Is  the  living  God  to  be 
proved  only  in  arbitrary  ordination  and  wilful  favor  to 
individuals  or  nations?  Must  he  be  a  Parent  who 


252  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

has  pets,  a  partial  Schoolmaster  whose  generosity  to 
one  pupil  is  injustice  to  another,  a  King  who  smiles 
on  his  courtiers,  and  for  critics  of  his  authority  has 
only  frowns?  Shall  some  exceptional  act,  some  whim 
sical  decree,  some  miracle  of  love  to  a  chosen  man,  in 
worse  violation  of  order  than  any  physical  prodigy, 
demonstrate  his  presence?  Thanks  to  investigators 
who  say,  No  ! 

Still  less  is  the  cause  of  Faith  served  by  ascribing 
any  occurrence  to  a  malignant  power.  Yet  a  new 
phrase,  in  startling  capitals,  has  lately  saluted  our  eyes 
on  placards,  and  from  the  orator's  speech,  and  in  public 
prints,  —  Fire-Fiend,  — -  a  natural  expression  to  per 
sonify  as  a  demon  the  element  of  awful  and  sudden 
mischief,  but  involving  a  hurtful  mistake.  Fire-min 
ister  or  fire-angel  is  the  true  religious  word.  The 
acceptance,  with  which  the  other  name  has  been  reit 
erated  shows  how  prevalent  still  the  false  feeling  which 
invented  it,  —  that  God  the  Good  has  a  rival  power  of 
evil  in  the  world,  with  agents  of  destruction  in  its  em 
ploy.  But  two  forces  are  not ;  only  one  in  Nature, 
making  servants  of  all  substance.  Nothing  in  the  uni 
verse  so  potent  as  fire.  It  has  lately  in  a  day  laid  in 
ashes  a  city  which  some  thought  the  most  beautiful  in 
the  States  ;  and,  not  content,  swept  villages  in  Michi 
gan  and  Wisconsin  away  with  its  burning  broom,  as  it 
turned  to  ashes  in  an  hour  the  cars  on  that  fatal  East 
ern  train,  and  poured  out  from  the  broken  pipes  the 
suffocating  steam  ;  consumed  to  the  water's  edge  the 
gay  yacht  on  Long  Island  Sound  ;  and  lurks  every 
where,  ready  to  spring  forth  quicker  than  a  panther 
or  assassin  for  deadly  mischief,  unless  sharper  than 


LAW.  253 

any  creature  in  ambush  it  is  watched ;  indifferent 
whether  it  destroy  treasure  or  life.  When  the  dog- 
star  rages,  men  fall  like  flies  under  the  sun-stroke.  Is 
it  not  diabolical?  No  :  it  is  divine.  Without  it  there 
were  nothing  human,  no  life  extant  of  any  sort.  Un 
seen  Spirit  we  believe  Author  of  all.  But  physical 
philosophy  has  shown  the  sun,  the  great  body  of 
light  and  heat  for  our  system,  to  be  the  source  of  all 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  the  Almighty's  instrument 
in  creation ;  and  the  sun  shines  because  it  burns. 
Sixty  or  seventy  tons  of  red-hot  coal  a  day  supplied 
the  motive-power  of  the  steamer  that  brought  me 
across  the  sea.  What  amount  of  fuel  is  thrown  into 
that  furnace  a  hundred  millions  of  miles  away,  to 
draw  the  planetary  load  !  There  is  no  bounty  of  the 
harvest,  and  no  beauty  of  the  blossoms,  no  benefit  of 
changing  seasons,  no  clothing  for  our  body,  no  daily 
bread,  comfort,  necessity,  or  luxury,  but  his  chariot 
brings  it.  From  his  genial  rays  the  growth  of  wood 
to  build  house  and  ship  or  kindle  on  our  hearth  ;  or 
out  of  forests  to  lay  away  the  mines  of  concentrated 
combustible  to  warm  us  in  winter,  and  turn  ten  million 
wheels  and  spindles  in  our  factories  the  year  round. 
It  is  all  fire,  angel  and  minister  of  God,  cashier 
of  the  bank  that  never  fails.  In  the  cordial  pressure 
of  your  hand,  beating  of  your  heart,  blush  on  your 
cheek,  sparkle  of  your  eye,  animation  of  your  look  and 
gesture,  is  some  portion  of  its  beams.  I  do  not  wonder 
at  the  Oriental  adoration  of  fire,  the  Persian  worship 
of  the  sun  ;  and  I  admire  the  keen  retort  of  the  East 
ern  sage  to  the  Englishman  who  rebuked  his  idolatry: 
"  You,  too,  might  worship  the  sun  if  in  your  foggy 


254  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

climate  you  ever  saw  him."  Could  any  idol  be 
allowed,  it  would  be  no  block,  picture,  or  graven 
image,  but  his  blazing  orb.  Jets  of  flame,  blue  and 
crimson,  which  no  science  can  comprehend  nor  logic 
expound,  lead  our  thoughts  into  unfathomable  mystery. 
Cold  is  death  :  the  marvel  of  life  arises  with  warmth. 

If  fire  be  the  strongest  of  the  elements  in  its  excess 
or  misplacement  to  harm,  it  has  no  peculiar  com 
mission  to  injure  nor  monopoly  to  destroy.  The  water 
that  buoys  will  drown.  The  air,  soft  as  a  zephyr,  can 
rise  in  tempest  of  ruin.  The  earth,  our  floor,  may 
cave  in  to  bury  us  alive,  or  slide  from  the  mountain 
and  carry  oft'  dwelling  and  inmate.  Every  thing  will 
bless  or  ban  us,  as  we  put  ourselves  in  fit  or  cross 
relations.  On  its  right  hand,  it  welcomes  ;  on  the  left, 
it  sends  us  accursed  away.  It  may  be  benediction 
or  scourge,  cornucopia  or  vial  of  wrath.  According 
to  our  behavior,  it  frowns  or  smiles,  furthers  or  blasts, 
gives  us  a  reception  or  sets  up  a  bar  of  judgment. 

We  owe  a  tender  pity  to  the  sufferings  of  our  fellow- 
creatures.  Never  was  a  tenderer  call  for  sympathy 
than  comes  from  the  city,  beside  the  sepulchre  of  its 
matchless  prosperity  so  speedily  dug.  Yet'  what  was 
the  conflagration  but  a  dreadful  calling  to  account  of 
the  hasty  ambition  for  wealth  and  success  that  put 
such  walls  of  pine  and  masses  of  shingle,  and  thin 
veneers  of  brick  and  stone,  the  best  of  which  were 
only  nominally  fire-proof,  and  wide  sections  where 
if  one  building  went  a  hundred  must  follow,  at  the 
mercy  of  a  kerosene  lamp  kicked  by  a  cow  ?  —  as  in 
Portland  a  fire-cracker  was  the  equally  insignificant 
occasion  of  doom.  If  we  charge  a  ledge  or  load  a 


LAW.  255 

cannon,  and  lay  a  train  of  powder,  or  attach  a  fuse, 
and  then  apply  a  spark,  we  know  what  to  expect. 
We  should  understand  with  equal  certainty  what  will 
come  in  such  ill-constructed  and  unguarded  quarters 
of  many  of  our  towns,  when  some  flung-away  match, 
or  midnight  reader's  candle  at  the  bed-curtain,  or 
careless  ash-heap,  or  smoker's  pipe  (getting  every 
year  to  be  a  more  general  and  unbearable  nuisance),  or 
burning  gun-wad,  times  the  flame,  it  starts  in  a  corner, 
with  draught  and  wind  to  give  it  instant  velocity  and 
terrible  voracity  in  its  course.  Chicago  endures  the 
penalty.  But  she  is  not  alone,  if  even  especially 
guilty.  She  is  conscript  for  our  battle  with  the 
avenger,  choosing  that  point  of  attack  and  warning 
us  with  what  other  onslaught  the  war  may  go  on. 
She  is  scapegoat  of  our  sin,  bearing  it  into  the  wilder 
ness  of  her  desolation,  if  we  repent.  She  is  one 
summoned  for  correction  as  an  example.  Avoid  her 
funeral-pyre  by  seeing  to  the  security  of  your  own 
edifices  and  streets. 

Fire  a  fiend?  What  bore  the  tidings  of  calamity 
and  the  cry  for  help  but  that  same  fire  in  the  shape  of 
lightning  over  the  wires,  more  rapid  in  its  office  than 
devouring  flame?  What  sent  back  instantaneous 
promise  of  aid  and  certificate  of  value  but  the  same 
stream,  the  essence  of  the  element  that  had  made  the 
havoc?  Fire  is  the  most  alarming  of  cries.  It  is  a 
good  servant,  but  a  bad  master.  But  let  us  not  forget 
it  is  in  its  nature  beneficent  alone.  A  great  cause  of 
death,  M.  Coquerel  tells  us,  in  the  siege  of  Paris  was 
the  cold,  want  of  fuel  in  exceptionally  severe  weather ; 
and  the  lives  of  children  were  saved  by  a  few  sticks 


256  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

to  make  a  fire  to  prepare  and  keep  warm  their  food. 
If  the  vengeance  of  violated  law  comes  through  fire, 
careering  on  the  wirl wind's  breath,  beating  down  arch 
and  column  and  marble  front,  and  escaping  all  control, 
we  must  not  call  malign  the  executor  of  justice  and 
instructor  to  obedience. 

Men  shrink  from  this  idea  of  wide-spread  woe  as 
punishment.  They  prefer  to  call  it  a  disaster,  visita 
tion  of  Providence.  It  is  a  sentence,  as  much  as  when 
a  man  is  sent  to  the  gallows  or  jail.  God's  officers 
are  in  waiting,  his  detective's  touch  on  our  shoulder. 
It  is  easy,  you  say,  to  be  wise  after  the  event.  Well, 
next  time  let  us  be  wise  before  the  event!  In  the 
enormous  size  our  cities  grow  to,  in  the  superficial 
quality  of  our  carpentry  and  masonry,  in  the  too  late 
arrival  of  our  engines  at  the  spot,  we  may  be  less 
safe  than  in  the  times  when  we  had  but  a  bell  with  no 
electric  arm  to  ring  it,  every  man's  buckets  hung  in  his 
garret,  and  all  good  citizens  rushed  from  their  rooms 
to  put  out  the  first  gleam  of  danger  or  restrict  it  to  a 
narrow  space.  Wisdom  after  the  event !  Have  we 
yet  to  learn  that  petroleum  oil  will  explode  with  a 
scintillation,  that  a  huge  flame  will  leap  across  a  scant 
passage,  and  when  it  gets  roaring  headway  will  smite 
the  stoutest  bulwarks  like  a  surging  sea  to  bear  down 
all  before  it? 

But  in  the  anguish  is  saving  grace.  It  reveals  the 
interconnection  and  solidarity  of  mankind.  Quarrel 
as  they  will,  and  vile  specimens  of  human  nature  — 
roughs,  thieves,  murderers  for  booty,  plunderers  of  the 
poor,  selfish  refusers  of  assistance  save  at  exorbitant 
prices  —  as  any  seething  of  the  social  elements  throws 


LAW.  257 

like  scum  to  the  top,  these  fellow-creatures  do  not 
desert  each  other  in  time  of  need.  Humanity  is  not 
extinguished  but  excited  by  misfortune,  though  we 
share  the  shock.  As  the  great  Lisbon  earthquake 
sent  a  ripple  over  the  ocean  to  American  shores, 
London  and  Liverpool  capital  feels  the  blow  of  falling 
Chicago.  But  London  and  Liverpool  are  not  with 
held  from  charity  by  their  loss.  Everywhere  none 
more  ready  to  give  than  those  who  have  suffered,  to 
those  who  have  suffered  more.  It  is  a  noble  temper 
in  this  mortal  clay,  a  shining  refutation  of  the  dogma 
that  the  soul  is  totally  depraved.  It  is  God  himself, 
who  is  love,  moving  in  his  children's  hearts.  It  is  an 
Internationally,  or  super-nationality,  all  whose  mem 
bers  rejoice  or  mourn  together. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  widely  through  the  country  and 
the  world,  from  a  single  town,  run  manifold  branches 
of  this  great  system  in  modern  business  of  insurance 
against  fire.  But  the  failure  of  insurance  companies 
under  the  strain,  and  the  disclosure  of  the  fact  that 
particular  corporations  will  agree  to  cover  thirty  times 
their  own  capital  or  assets,  may  suggest  a  query  how 
far  we  are  covered,  and  whether  commissioners,  like 
some  boiler-inspectors,  are  not  too  easy  in  their  search. 

Fire,  then,  is  Heaven's  servant,  and  no  fiend.  The 
old  Theology  must  answer  in  part  for  its  being  so 
'misunderstood.  The  ungovernable  fury  of  fire  fairly 
unloosed  ;  its  hideous  waste  of  wide  regions,  leaving 
groves  and  fields  and  habitations  blackened  heaps ;  its 
terrific  overflow  from  volcanic  peaks  into  streams  of 
lava,  to  scorch  and  whelm  in  ruin  vineyard  and  abode  ; 
its  dismal  smotherings  of  man  and  beast ;  the  ground 
17 


258  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

trembling  and  rumbling  with  its  pent-up  force,  im 
patient  to  escape  from  the  centre  it  constitutes  of  the 
globe,  with  famous  judgments,  as  on  Sodom  and  Go 
morrah,  —  have  doubtless  furnished  to  writers  of  Scrip 
ture  the  hint  of  the  popular  hell.  It  was  an  apprehen 
sion  from  Nature,  not  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
How  much  more  grand  and  true  David's  conception 
of  it,  as  a  minister  bearing  the  Lord's  gifts  and  correc 
tions  alike  in  its  hand  ! 

Fire  a  devil  or  factor  of  Beelzebub  ?  What  is  this 
warming  of  the  heart,  all  over  the  land  and  the  world, 
but  an  inward  fire  lighted  from  the  supersolar  spark, 
and  having  in  it  a  million-fold  the  heat  even  of  those 
fierce,  unquenchable  tongues  that  sucked  up  the  verdure 
round  the  Lakes,  licked  into  dust  the  metropolis  of 
Illinois,  and  feasted  on  the  blood  of  thousands  of  lives, 
to  mark  this  hemisphere  of  the  West  with  one  of  the 
chief  astounding  afflictions  in  the  annals  of  mankind? 
Fire  in  the  wrong  place  —  on  the  floor,  and  not  on  the 
hearth  ;  in  a  powder-magazine,  and  not  a  factory-chim 
ney  ;  in  a  defective  flue  instead  of  a  poor  man's  hovel  — 
is  no  comfort.  The  inward  fire  —  in  our  hate,  not  our 
kindness  ;  in  envy,  not  generosity  ;  in  lust,  not  love  —  is 
no  minister  of  grace.  Yet  even  it  has  caught,  to  burn 
out  the  often  foul  chimney  of  a  human  breast,  which 
will  draw  better  when  it  is  clean.  The  remorse  we 
deprecate  we  could  not  spare.  Fan  the  flame  of  a 
fine  compunction.  Let  the  fire,  that  has  levelled  a 
city  to  the  soil  out  of  which  with  such  indomitable 
industry  it  was  raised,  be  met  with  the  brighter  glow 
of  charity.  As  in  the  prairie  on  whose  edges  she  sat, 
their  crown  and  lustre  for  a  thousand  miles,  fire  is 


LAW.  259 

fought  with  fire,  so  against  the  outward  element  let 
us  set  the  interior  flame  of  good-will.  Because  love 
was  not  burnt,  Chicago  shall  be  rebuilt.  Charity  shall 
be  the  master-mechanic.  Courage  shall  be  restored  in 
her  citizens  by  the  world's  generosity.  She  shall  rise 
from  prostration,  with  the  help  of  a  hundred  cities, 
more  fair  and  strong  than  before  ;  and,  with  her  hands 
stretched  to  the  lakes  and  the  sea,  feed  us  again  with 
meat  and  bread,  if  we  feed  her  sore  want  and  hunger 
now. 

If  there  is  a  law  of  Nature,  there  is  a  law  of  love 
in  human  nature  and  the  Divine.  When  we  talk  of 
natural  law,  let  us  not  forget  that  which  is  not  less 
natural  because  it  is  spiritual.  The  overflow  of  sym 
pathy  in  the  shape  of  bounty  surprises  giver  and 
receiver.  Yet  it  is  no  accident  nor  choice,  but  a  ne 
cessity  firmer  than  the  ravage  of  flame  or  axis  of  the 
globe.  What  merit  in  that  succor  which  is  the  consti 
tution  of  the  human  heart?  If  we  speak  of  the  whole 
humanity,  and  not,  like  Paul,  of  a  sin-distracted  soul, 
the  law  of  the  members  is  the  law  of  the  mind.  The 
flame  that  made  a  cinder  of  the  great  city,  and  used 
forests  for  its  kindlings,  was  but  the  lamp  that  law  is 
read  by.  If  without  such  light  the  inward  engraving 
might  get  effaced  or  obscured,  the  conflagration  is  a 
blessing.  If  the  fire  were  sent  not  only  to  consume 
town  and  village,  treasure  and  life,  but  to  burn  deeper 
this  lesson,  its  art  is  glorious  beyond  all  other  encaustic 
pictures. 

The  Divine  law  is  remedy,  not  fatal  disease.  The 
Samaritan  that  will  not  leave  the  robbed  and  wounded 
traveller  to  perish  is  not  a  man  sitting  on  his  beast  and 


260  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

riding  between  Jerusalem  and  Jericho,  but  mankind 
as  a  comforter  for  every  afflicted  man.  We  heal  our 
own  flesh  when  we  pour  balm  into  anybody's  wounds. 
The  apostle's  figure  is  true:  Christian  goodness  is 
kindness  to  one's  self;  and  the  Western  paper's  sen 
tence  was  scarce  a  conceit  or  hyperbole,  —  that  even 
Chicago  is  essential  to  the  world. 

Our  help  to  the  needy  is  a  meter  of  civilization  and 
religion.  It  gauges  our  discovery  of  the  Personality 
in  which  we  all  meet  together.  No  individuality  but 
must  pass  and  melt  in  the  consciousness  of  an  equal 
destiny  and  source.  But  this  is  no  mechanism.  The 
ocean  will  not  flow  where  is  no  inlet ;  and  there  are 
souls  closed  up  against  this  benevolent  tide.  They 
are  shut  out  just  as  much  from  their  own  joy.  Virgil's 
line,  — 

"  Happy  if  they  but  knew  their  own  welfare," 

illustrates  the  deeper  self-ignorance  of  those  who  can 
not  learn  pity  when  in  such  blazing  letters'.  But  they 
are  becoming  the  exceptions.  How  fellow-feeling  in 
creases  and  benefactors  multiply !  All  the  prophecies 
that  illuminate  the  Bible  grow  pale  before  the  fact  of 
the  millennial  day.  It  is  easy  for  a  hard  heart  to  dis 
pense  alms  to  a  wretched  object.  But  to  lavish 
supplies  to  beneficiaries  hid  by  the  breadth  of  the 
earth  is  a  revelation  of  the  sons  of  God.  After  the 
death  of  Thomas  Starr  King,  a  man  in  California, 
leaning  on  his  tool,  and  with  tears  running  down  his 
cheeks,  cried  out,  "Howl  loved  that  man!"  "You 
knew  him,  I  suppose?  "  said  the  traveller  to  whom  he 
spoke.  "  No,  I  did  not."  "  You  have  heard  him 


LAW.  26l 

speak,  then?"  was  the  rejoinder.  "No:  I  never 
saw  him,"  said  the  rude  miner  again.  When  affection 
like  that  shall  spread  as  a  common  sentiment,  the 
misers  will  be  in  the  minority,  the  kinship  from  one 
touch  of  nature  will  be  owned ;  perhaps  the  Divine 
need  will  cease  of  startling  us  by  flagrant  cases  to 
commiserate,  and  society  be  born  again. 


XL 

ORIGIN. 

\  LL  thinkers  consent  that  the  Bible  book  of  Gen- 
•**•  esis  gives  but  a  fable  of  the  creation,  or  the 
conception  of  some  poetic  mind,  not  any  miraculous 
knowledge  which  the  Creator  bestowed.  That  the 
light  and  the  heavenly  bodies  and  every  living  order 
arose  from  some  distinct,  instantaneous  fiat,  science 
cannot  admit ;  nor  that  there  was  ever  such  a  nothing 
as  the  catechism  supposes  out  of  which  the  universe 
came.  We  can  as  easily  conceive  that  God  was  born 
as  that  the  world  began.  It  was  not  made  in  time,  but 
by  the  Eternal  Builder,  in  whose  productive  essence 
it  is  everlasting  as  himself;  nor  can  we  insert  any 
notion  of  age  or  chronology  between  his  being  and 
his  work,  however  we  may  trace  connection  in  its 
parts,  or  the  progress  of  a  single  planet  like  the  earth. 
Physical  philosophy,  in  attempting  to  show  a  com 
mencement,  commits  the  same  error  with  literal  faith  ; 
and  is  guilty  of  a  blunder  all  its  own,  in  deriving  every 
thing  from  matter  instead  of  spirit,  as  is  so  grandly 
asserted  in  the  Scripture  text.  Reason  allows  not 
dust  as  the  basis,  but  the  deposit  of  mind.  Only  a 
thoughtless  observation  could  bring  forth  the  fancy, 


ORIGIN.  263 

that  figures  in  so  many  a  verse,  of  "  primeval  chaos 
and  night."  There  was  no  darkness  before  the  dawn. 
Light  and  cosmos  alone  were  primeval,  —  begotten 
of  God.  If  the  earth  was  ever  without  form  and  void, 
other  spheres  without  number  were  shining  and  sing 
ing  in  the  firmament.  Never  a  wreck  that  was  not 
the  refuse  of  former  beauty,  never  a  clod  but  from  the 
decay  of  somewhat  awaiting  a  resurrection ;  and 
all  that  we  call  dead  is  cast-off  clothing,  mending  for 
some  new  garment.  It  is  the  dropping  of  decay, 
which  fresh  vitality  shall  resume.  Matter,  which  is 
multitude,  follows  Spirit,  which  is  One.  Our  students 
overlook  on  Jacob's  ladder  the  descending  angels, 
prior  in  office  to  those  that  ascend.  Creation  is  the 
condescension  of  the  Most  High  to  become  the  Most 
Low :  not  dust  rising  into  Deity,  but  Deity  stooping 
to  dust.  We  can  get  the  finite  out  of  the  Infinite  ;  but 
the  process  cannot  be  reversed.  The  manifold  is  the 
One,  but  without  the  One  were  no  number. 

The  fruit  on  the  tree  of  life  is  from  ideal  planting. 
We  are  told  that  from  material  investigations  has 
grown  all  benefit.  But  by  some  metaphysician, 
visionary  or  spiritual  observer,  every  seed  has  been 
sown.  Only  to  the  kingdom  of  God  have  all  the 
other  good  things  been  added.  A  pure  perception,  of 
which  nothing  visible  was  cause  or  more  than  occa 
sion,  in  the  mind  of  the  physical  explorer,  —  Newton, 
Kepler,  Oken,  Goethe,  —  led  to  every  discovery  from 
which  inestimable  utilities  proceed.  Abstract  thinkers, 
as  Kant  and  Plato,  stop  not  in  their  service  of  intelli 
gence  till  they  lift  the  whole  platform  of  action  and 
plane  of  life.  Matter  is  the  false  date  that  spoils  our 


264  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

almanac.  It  makes  every  item  of  calculation  decep 
tive.  From  the  cradle  of  Eternal  Being  all  variety 
springs. 

The  fault  of  the  last  theory  is  in  trying  to  evolve 
the  entire  man  from  what  is  below  himself.  His 
animal  organism  may  be  so  unfolded.  But  he  is 
spirit  too.  Something  is  let  down  as  well  as  lifted  up 
into  him.  Will  our  friend,  who  is  following  back  the 
race  into  some  primitive  germ,  please  to  account  for 
his  own  presence  and  curiosity,  —  for  his  wish  and 
power  to  classify?  Whence  his  hunger  after  some 
thing  more  than  those  creature-comforts  for  multiply 
ing  which  the  Baconian  method  is  praised  ?  I  want 
an  explanation  not  only  of  the  object  which  is  his 
subject,  but  of  the  student  himself  and  of  the  study ; 
and  I  find  it  only  in  some  absolute  Truth. 

On  purely  physical  premises  God  himself  is  no 
Original,  but  only  a  conclusion.  But  out  of  the  finite, 
which  is  all  the  understanding  and  senses  can  com 
pass,  only  the  finite  comes.  No  heaping  of  finites 
can  get  nearer  the  Infinite  than  does  a  drop.  Some 
logicians  throw  contempt  on  the  pretence  of  a  finite 
creature  like  man  to  any  idea  of  infinity.  But  what  if 
it  should  turn  out  that  he  is  infinite  himself  ?  In  the 
Semitic,  Hebraic,  and  Mahometan,  as  well  as  the  too 
often  pseudo-Christian  thought,  God  and  man  are 
separate  terms,  so  that  the  latter  can  reach  the  former 
only  by  some  bridge.  But  the  cause-way  is  the 
common  nature  of  both.  The  mediator  between  God 
and  man  must  be  divine,  and  man  must  be  divine  for 
mediation  to  be  possible.  The  phrase  immutable, 
addressed  so  continually  to  Deity  by  our  clerical  sires 


ORIGIN.  265 

in  their  prayers,  seemed  external,  and  implied  this 
separate  Being  we  are  in  relation  with.  But  the 
Japhetic  mind  abolished  this  gulf,  filled  up  the  empty 
space,  turned  the  interval  into  smooth  continent,  and 
saw  the  Unity  which  God  and  man  together  are.  In 
the  Greek  gospel  ascribed  to  John,  Jesus  says,  "  I  and 
my  Father  are  one ; "  and  in  that  last  wonderful 
prayer  for  oneness  in  which  all  should  meet,  he  means 
nothing  personal  to  himself  as  an  individual,  but  has 
a  vision  of  the  measureless  life.  Strange  that  the 
Gospel  whose  authenticity  is  questioned  should  pro 
claim  the  spiritual  verity  which  the  Synoptics  miss, 
though  they  do  not  contradict,  and  perhaps  in  the 
divine  Fatherhood  imply.  Which  narrative  is  the 
truest  representation  of  the  historic  Saviour  it  is  left 
to  scholarship  still  to  decide.  But  an  insignificant 
minority  of  the  Church  has  yet  risen  to  the  sublimer 
view.  Even  the  Father  is  so  outside  as  to  be  but  a 
fetish  unseen.  The  soul  has  idols  as  well  as  the 
sense.  When  I  spoke  of  the  Deity  as  changing  to  us 
with  our  own  growth,  some  of  my  hearers  were 
shocked,  and  one  quoted  against  me  the  text,  "  with 
out  variableness  or  shadow  of  turning."  But  I  replied 
that  nothing  which  turns  or  casts  a  shadow  is  without 
God,  or  not  part  of  him  as  much  as  the  sun ;  that  he 
is  not  only  the  fixture,  but  the  flow  ;  and  that  the  same 
sacred  book  declares  that  he  repented  of  having  made 
man. 

But  does  not  Divinity  descend  into  and  commu 
nicate  with  the  brute  too?  There  are  animals  that 
mock  man  in  their  habits  ;  warm  themselves  at  the 
fire,  build  lodgings  among  the  trees,  and  fling  broken 


266  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

branches  at  their  pursuers.  The  ants  emulate  us  in 
their  wars.  But  none  of  them  put  telescopes  to  their 
eyes,  hold  pens  in  their  hands,  raise  temples,  found 
governments,  save  in  the  rudest  fashion  among  the 
bees,  beavers,  and  crows ;  pass  laws,  have  art  to  dis 
cover  truth  or  put  eloquence  on  their  tongues,  or 
imitate  with  any  of  their  horny  armory  the  cannon- 
wheel  that  ploughs  the  earth  for  the  seed  of  freedom 
and  right.  But  they  all  partake  this  universal  motion 
and  will,  which,  no  less  than  thought,  expresses  Deity. 
The  head  of  the  Phidian  Jove  speaks  not  only  of 
reflection,  but  power  and  pity,  to  indicate  the  artist's 
and  the  Greek  idea.  Personality,  self-consciousness, 
action  as  well  as  vision,  is  the  lesson  written  in  the 
world  ;  and  some  rudiments  or  relics  of  all  our  attain 
ments  may  be  detected  in  these  inferiors,  the  poor 
relations  we  do  not  own,  but  may  have  yet  to  admit 
to  a  share  in  our  proud  generalities  for  mankind  of 
free  and  equal  birth-rights.  Burns's  adoption  of  the 
mouse  for  his  fellow-creature  hints  in  it  some  drop 
of  the  blood  of  which  God  is  sacredly  said  to  have 
made  all  nations.  The  St.  Bernard  dog,  that  saved 
the  life  of  a  wounded  soldier  by  hugging  him  to  his 
breast  when  every  comrade  had  left,  was  entitled  to 
rank  among  nurses.  The  Newfoundland  one,  that 
slept  on  his  master's  bed,  but  would  not  enter  the 
chamber  after  the  master's  death,  yet  oftenest  of  any 
member  of  his  family  went  to  lie  on  the  grave,  might 
be  classed  among  mourners.  The  one  that  gave  me 
a  daily  greeting  at  the  corner  of  my  street,  as  cordial 
as  any  neighbor's,  I  certainly  counted  among  my 
friends. 


ORIGIN.  267 

But  in  my  recognition  of  these  as  members  of  the 
family  reduced  in  their  fortunes,  who  may  have  seen 
better  days,  let  me  not  forget  I  have  rich  relations  and 
a  nobler  kith  and  kin.  Humboldt  says,  "  I  am  an 
insect  clinging  to  the  surface  of  the  earth."  Did  he 
think  how  nearly  he  adopted  the  theologic  classifi 
cation,  — 

"  What  worthless  worms  are  we"? 

I  walk  with  the  man  of  science  up  the  rounds  of 
organization  from  the  dust.  But  let  him  not  ask  me  to 
stop  with  the  human  form.  I  can  show,  of  angels,  no 
plates  such  as  travellers  fetch  from  their  observations, 
or  geologists  give  of  fossil  remains.  But  does  nothing 
exist  which  cannot  be  so  represented?  The  trilobite 
may  be  ancestor  of  my  body,  but  not  father  of  my 
soul.  That  the  scale  of  being  ends  in  man  is  im 
possible  to  think.  It  has  no  end  nor  beginning.  It  is 
that  sort  in  mechanics  called  an  endless  chain.  It 
is  not  a  circle,  but  a  spiral.  Go  down,  microscope  in 
hand,  to  the  seed-vessel,  to  the  animal  cell,  to  the 
root  in  the  ground,  or  dot  or  double-dot  in  the  egg ; 
to  the  sponge  on  the  rock  or  increment  of  the  crystal ; 
to  the  chemical  atom  ;  to  the  infantile  miniature  of  the 
plant  betwixt  the  lobes  of  its  little  germ  ;  to  the  undu 
lations  of  a  ray  of  light,  or  the  splendid  blossoms 
among  the  softest  tiny  feathers  of  the  bed  of  moss  ;  to 
the  generation  of  colors  by  the  crossing  of  flowers,  or 
the  hues  in  the  marvellous  sea-weeds  that  match  the 
rose  and  pink,  —  are  you  nearer  the  bottom  than  when 
you  set  out?  Can  you  tell  if  the  bubbles  you  come 
to  are  the  primal  forms,  or  by  whom  they  were  blown  ? 


268  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Go  up  to  this  globe  of  reason  in  the  human  head,  and 
thence  to  this  well  of  love  in  the  human  heart,  are 
you  nearer  to  the  top  ;  or  do  you  sit  down  weary  as  a 
child  on  the  monumental  stairs?  We  build  cemeteries. 
Is  there  in  God's  works  any  graveyard  that  we  can 
set  apart  and  consecrate  to  stay  for  a  burial-ground, 
save  as  a  spot  of  perpetual  resurrection?  Transfor 
mation  of  species  does  not  gainsay  immortality  ;  for 
this  is  possible  only  by  the  convertibility  and  conver 
sion  of  man  into  angel  through  some  selection,  adding 
buoyancy  and  leaving  out  what  is  earth-bound.  When 
it  please  God  to  slide  us  off  easy  as  sleeping  to  a  new 
sphere,  it  will  be  no  transmigration  as  of  summer-birds, 
but  transmutation  of  life.  Does  not  the  soul  conceive 
its  capacity  to  live  and  act  without  these  special 
organs,  and  paint  in  tints  of  glory  the  heaven  to 
which  it  goes?  "  The  Father's  house"  was  no  struct 
ure  Jesus  had  seen  ;  but,  more  solid  than  any  edifice, 
it  was  a  reality  his  imagination  projected.  With  In 
finite  Personality  every  person  is  safe,  from  the  elder 
above  to  each  mite  of  humanity.  You  have  not  lost 
your  child.  The  spirit  that  shone  in  its  soft  eyes, 
moved  in  its  tender  limbs,  beat  in  its  gentle  heart,  and 
spoke  in  its  inarticulate  voice,  has  title  to  unfold  beyond 
any  seed  of  the  garden  and  the  field.  We  called  the 
negro  an  ape  ;  and  science  avenges  the  insult  by  forc 
ing  us  into  the  same  relationship.  They,  whose 
bravery  at  Port  Hudson  and  Fort  Wagner  no  white 
ever  surpassed,  shamed  millions  of  traitors  or  half 
hearted  patriots  in  the  Free  States.  They  were  God's 
make- weight  against  the  slavery  they  had  suffered. 
They  turned  the  tide  of  battle  for  the  freedom  by 


ORIGIN.  269 

which  alone  the  nation  was  saved.  We  owe  the  Com 
monwealth  to  a  black  skin.  If  there  be  no  future  for 
the  black  man,  let  there  be  none  for  me  ! 

The  impossibility  of  running  a  boundary-line  be 
tween  man  and  animal  is  hinted  in  the  fact  of  their 
correspondence  in  every  physical  feature,  which  dis 
covery  of  higher  likeness  with  every  close  observation 
backs.  It  was  thought  the  lower  creatures  have  no 
conscience.  But  shame  for  misconduct,  with  suscepti 
bility  of  correction  and  improvement  in  some  of  them, 
is  plain.  It  was  said  they  have  no  notion  of  God. 
What  notion  have  we  but  in  that  sense  of  Being 
superior  to  ourselves,  which  the  cow  and  ox  show  in 
our  presence  ?  It  is  said  every  day,  the  horse  would 
not  be  so  submissive  if  he  knew  his  own  strength. 
The  lion,  elephant,  leopard,  and  tiger  revere  their 
keeper.  We  are  told  they  have  no  language.  But 
they  communicate  with  each  other.  The  sentinel- 
crow  warns  the  flock.  Many  a  bird  calls  its  mate, 
with  strophe  and  antistrophe  of  song.  They  under 
stand  much  of  our  meaning  in  the  natural  language  of 
expression.  Whether  they  have  or  will  ever  reach 
arbitrary  terms  for  abstract  conceptions,  or  whether 
words  are  senseless  in  the  parrot's  mouth,  let  those 
who  will  presume  to  decide  in  the  light  of  the  train 
ing  they  are  capable  of  and  progress  they  make. 
But  must  we  not  admit  they  have  no  ideas?  The 
term  idea  subtends  an  arc  so  wide,  from  Plato  to 
the  savage  brain,  it  is  not  easy  to  settle  their  share. 
But  some  representation  of  the  world,  and  of  the 
creature  in  it  who  assumes  to  be  lord  of  the  creation, 
they  clearly  possess  and  are  governed  by  in  their 


270  RADICAL   PROBLEMS. 

course.  The  squirrel  I  stoned  when  I  was  a  thought 
less  boy,  who  stopped  after  much  running  in  the  centre 
of  the  ridge-pole  of  my  father's  barn,  rose  on  his  hind 
legs,  and  with  his  fore  paws  beat  his  breast,  moved 
me  with  his  prayer  immediately  to  desist.  Yet  is  any 
animal  like  man  in  proposing  to  himself  an  object  in 
life  ?  One  kind  of  dog  seems  to  choose  for  his  pro 
fession  the  rescue  of  travellers  from  Alpine  snows ; 
and  another  kind  seems  to  make  it  his  business  to  save 
from  drowning,  though  known  sometimes  to  seize  and 
bear  from  the  water  such  involuntary  subjects  of  com 
passion  as  only  proposed  to  swim.  The  shepherd- 
dog's  care  of  the  flock  shows  more  intelligence  than 
some  human  servants,  and  is  daily  engaged  in  what 
looks  wonderfully  like  a  regular  occupation.  Do  we 
choose,  or  are  we  led  and  impressed  into  our  vocations  ? 
Surely  there  are  things  men  do  and  animals  can 
not,  such  as  architecture,  legislation,  astronomy,  and 
finance.  But  the  question  is  whether,  in  what  they 
are  competent  to,  they  show  signs  of  similar  faculties 
and  dispositions ;  so  that  students  dispute,  and  are 
puzzled  to  know  if  man  be  an  ascended  brute,  or  the 
beast  a  descended  man.  The  point  of  debate  is 
whether  an  absolute  demarcation  can  be  run  between 
them  at  any  point,  to  make  in  Nature  the  vacuum  she 
abhors.  In  our  pride,  we  stand  out  for  the  godless 
gap.  We  inherit  with  our  religion  a  traditional  pre 
judice  from  the  Jews,  whose  sacred  superiority  and 
antipathy  to  animals  had  to  be  withstood  by  the  com 
mand  not  to  muzzle  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn. 
Paul  bids,  but  I  do  not,  "  beware  of  dogs."  But  the 
just  sympathy,  in  which  man  reaches  out  in  our  day 


ORIGIN.  271 

to  woman,  may  extend  at  last  to  lower  tribes.  What 
limits  this  fellow-feeling  may  have  to  observe  we  have 
not  yet  defined.  I  have  a  friend  who  declines  to 
molest  mosquitoes  in  their  feast  on  himself.  But  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals  finds 
itself  obliged  to  discriminate,  and,  according  to  the 
humorous  proverb,  "  draw  the  line  somewhere,"  —  one 
of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  its  creed  being  for  the 
encouragement  of  "  insectivorous  birds  ;  "  while  I  have 
known  a  tender-hearted  woman  to  bound  her  mercy 
the  other  way,  with  a  wish  that  the  mal-treater  of  a 
dray-horse  might  be  removed  by  death  ! 

But  let  us  consider  certain  religious  objections  to 
this  last  view  of  human  nature,  which  is  now  the  main 
question  under  debate,  not  only  in  books  of  science, 
but  in  every  newspaper  of  the  secular  and  religious 
press,  city  parlor,  sea-side  piazza,  and  country  town. 
To  the  first  shock  of  the  doctrine  that  the  whole  race 
did  not  arise  from  one  couple,  the  cloud  of  Darwin 
adds  the  heavier  clap  that  our  ancestry  runs  back  of 
all  human  creatures  to  the  anthropoids,  and  behind 
even  them  to  the  first  species  and  speck  of  organized 
being. 

This  endless  series,  of  which  humanity  is  but  a 
link,  is  supposed  first  to  reflect  on  the  Creator,  by 
doing  away  with  creation  in  any  proper  sense,  and 
substituting  for  cause  and  effect,  for  voluntary  divine 
production,  not  special  development,  but  general 
evolution,  interminable  sequence  of  existences  and 
events  needing  no  spirit,  but  only  matter,  for  their 
substance  and  source ;  whereas  the  tale  in  Genesis 
presents  a  real  Maker  fashioning  his  child  from  the 


272  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

dust  of  the  earth,  and  breathing  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life.  But  would  God  show  more  power, 
or  man  be  clothed  with  greater  honor,  in  this  direct 
formation  from  the  ground  than  by  transformation  of 
successive  animal  ranks?  Did  the  earth  lose  worth, 
and  was  it  soiled,  by  being  shaped  into  a  worm,  a  fish, 
a  bird,  before  taking  the  upright  figure?  To  the 
bishop  denouncing  such  a  transmission  Mr.  Huxley 
said,  "  Rather  come  from  a  monkey  than  be  a  block  in 
the  way  of  science  ! "  The  biblical  theologian,  and 
obsequious  naturalist  who  defers  to  the  popular  creed 
and  explains  Genesis,  offer  no  appeal  to  reason,  but  an 
argument  to  pride,  in  trying  to  persuade  us  man  was 
made  apart  from  every  other  creature  ;  God  stopping 
to  draw  a  long  breath  and  open  a  wide  interval  betwixt 
all  that  lives  beside  and  him,  that  he  might  have  the 
glory  of  a  purely  independent  and  isolated  derivation. 
But  attempt  to  conceive  how  this  starting  him  all  by 
himself  took  place.  Did  actual  hands  scoop  the  atoms 
from  the  soil,  to  mould,  as  an  artist  does  the  clay,  into 
a  perfect  model  of  manhood?  and  did  a  mouth  of 
flesh  blow  into  the  yet  lifeless  nostrils,  to  turn  the  stiff 
corse  into  a  moving  frame  ?  Is  that  a  credible  mode 
of  divine  working  ?  and  is  transmutation  step  by 
step  from  inferior  to  superior  incredible?  It  is  so 
only  to  the  superstitious  caviller,  not  exploring  the 
contents  of  his  own  thought,  or  affirming  a  literal 
dogma  instead  of  thinking  at  all. 

The  new  hypothesis  is  not  fully  proven  in  any  state 
ment  of  it  yet  made.  The  record  is  imperfect.  The 
trains  of  observation  do  not  connect.  But  the  objec 
tion  holds  not  good.  You  have  seen  the  conjurer's 


ORIGIN.  273 

trick  with  his  rings,  now  together  and  now  apart,  you 
could  not  tell  how.  Do  distinguishable  varieties  of 
being  suggest  an  Author  more  than  an  indissoluble 
chain  ?  You  suspect  materialism  in  this  unfolding  of 
life  from  stage  to  stage,  with  no  possibly  perceptible 
boundary-line.  But  is  Deity  revealed  by  intervening 
rather  than  by  propelling  from  the  first?  or  is  infinite 
power  and  wisdom  required  to  project  things  one  by 
one,  as  a  sculptor  does  his  statues,  more  than  to 
fashion  a  mighty  whole?  It  is  thought  the  scientist 
would  banish  the  Originator,  and  show  the  palace  of 
Nature  reared  out  of  multiplied  myriads  of  infinitesi 
mal  tiles.  But  it  is  absurd  to  fancy  there  ever  was  less 
or  ever  will  be  more  universe,  or  that  matter  is  a  con 
dition  save  as  the  consequence  of  mind.  What  is  all 
existence  but  receptacle,  prepared  in  the  animal  and 
enlarged  in  the  human  brain,  while  every  instinct 
flows  in,  from  what  fountain  who  shall  tell?  It  were 
as  rational  to  say  the  granite  reservoir  makes  the 
water  it  holds,  as  that  the  cerebral  lobes  create  the 
thought  and  affection  they  are  incarnate  chambers  of, 
and  every  nerve  a  service-pipe  of  the  river  of  God. 
Shakspeare  describes  the  ambitious  man 

"  Scorning  the  base  degrees 
By  which  he  did  ascend." 

Our  disgust  at  the  notion  that  we  are  graduates  of  this 
primary  school  of  the  animals  into  the  university  of 
souls  proves  like  arrogance,  acquired  through  sin,  not 
natural  to  the  simple,  unsophisticated  mind.  They 
are  somehow  our  fellows.  Why  are  children  so  fond 
of  them,  begging  to  be  taken  to  the  circus  and  men- 

18 


274  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

agerie,  eager  to  feed  the  elephant  as  he  comes  out  to 
swing  his  trunk,  to  visit  by  turns  the  tenant  of  every 
cage,  and  run  after  every  dog  and  kitten,  lamb  and 
calf,  chicken  and  bug?  Because,  as  George  Herbert 
says  of  the  healing  plants,  they  "  find  their  acquaint 
ance  there."  "  Do  you  think  that  fine  infant  boy 
came  from  a  monkey?  "  asked  one.  "  He  is  a  monkey 
himself,"  was  the  reply  ;  a  speech  the  mother  standing 
by  did  not  seem  to  resent.  "  I  always  thought,"  said 
my  friend,  u  the  man  was  only  something  more  than  a 
monkey,  and  the  monkey  something  less  than  a  man." 
But  which  way  does  the  motion  take  ?  There  is  no 
law  of  progress  by  which  every  thing  advances  and 
nothing  declines.  If  some  angels  are  going  up,  others 
are  coming  down.  The  Maker  is  implicated  in  all. 
\Vere  man  to  fall,  God  would  go  down  with  him  ! 
But  particular  men  and  tribes  may  sink  to  the  brute 
and  the  worm.  Some  ethnologists  see  in  the  North 
American  Indians  the  wreck  and  refuse  of  the  ancient 
ten  tribes  of  the  Jews.  A  degraded  race  is  harder  to 
recover  than  an  undeveloped  one  to  ascend.  Many  a 
man  is  burying  himself  in  some  beast.  I  would  be 
just  and  kind  to  every  feeble  member  of  a  lowered 
humanity,  Indian  or  African,  for  in  every  such  mem 
ber  I  see  an  undying  soul ;  but  I  would  not  lift  a 
finger  to  perpetuate  the  race.  A  distinguished  French 
man  told  me  he  thought  the  French  type  was  going 
clown.  Surely,  the  German  type  more  deserves  to 
be  and  propagate  than  that  which  in  the  modern 
Gaul  has  lived  so  long  not  on  duty,  but  glory.  What 
was  the  Commune  but  the  last  struggle  of  a  nation  to 
preserve  itself  in  the  quality  of  self-worship  ?  But,  as 


ORIGIN.  275 

Goethe  says,  God  will  not  see  the  once-loved  features 
of  the  progenitors  in  the  faces  of  a  corrupted  lineage. 
Without  extinction,  through  long  purgatory,  by  an  ill- 
trained  people  must  paradise  be  regained.  All  run 
ning  down  is  for  re-creation,  as  Tennyson's  "  Vision 
of  Sin1'  ends  with  an  awful  "  rose  of  dawn."  Fallen 
races,  like  fallen  leaves,  manure  another  growth.  Out 
of  latent  or  suppressed  germs  better  timber  springs 
through  the  ashes  of  worthless  woods.  Would  not  a 
section  of  the  creation  show  eternal  equality  of  the 
aeons  in  finer  grades  of  quality  than  all  the  stuffs  and 
goods  of  human  art?  The  old  mythology  pictured 
the  gods  striding  from  hill  to  hill ;  but  there  is  no 
mincing  step  so  nice  and  short  as  their  degrees.  The 
geologist  cannot  see  the  glacier  move  through  the 
Alpine  gorge  ;  but,  as  it  must  move  unequally  at  the 
centre  and  the  sides,  he  takes  its  measure  by  the  rela 
tive  position,  after  a  certain  period,  of  a  series  of 
stakes.  What  pins  shall  denote  changing  combina 
tions  of  the  smaller  particles  of  magnetism,  electricity, 
heat,  and  light,  to  build  the  living  frame  or  inanimate 
things  ? 

Yet,  according  to  the  Primer,  this  is  not  creation  at 
all.  Did  not  God  make  the  world  out  of  nothing? 
Try  to  imagine  a  time  when  was  no  universe.  We 
can  no  more  think  away  Nature  than  God.  A  naked 
Deity,  or  blank  Unity  with  no  diversity,  One  without 
many,  is  an  unreal  idea  of  impossible  fact.  The 
Trinity  is  a  philosophic  attempt  to  escape  from  a 
barren  and  bald  monotheism.  But  no  less  preposter 
ous  an  Infinite  Parent  from  all  eternity,  with  but  one 
child.  All  that  is  must  have  for  ever  been.  Like  a 


276  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

changeable  silk,  the  Almighty's  robe,  glimmering  in 
the  light  of  his  countenance,  makes  the  only  altera 
tion.  Miracles  —  are  there  several,  or  but  one  impene 
trable  wonder  through  innumerable  forms  ?  Were  the 
sea  to  ridge  itself  a  dry-shod  path,  or  the  sun  to  rest 
on  his  axle,  the  green  bush  to  burst  into  flame,  or  the 
water  become  wine,  I  should  not  be  more  amazed, 
however  confounded  and  stupefied,  than  by  every 
regular  phenomenon  and  ordinary  procession.  My 
objection  to  miracles  is  not  the  scientist's,  for  he  is 
incompetent  to  disprove  them  ;  nor  the  scholar's,  of 
not  evidence  enough  ;  but  the  child's,  that  a  Father 
leading  should  turn  round  to  confront  his  own  method 
and  take  it  all  back.  Whatever,  like  the  marvellous 
healings,  we  have  a  gleam  and  inkling  of  in  Nature, 
we  can  accept  as  going  on  from  the  least  experience 
to  the  farthest  reach.  If  species  are  distinct,  every 
new  one  seems  an  added  prodigy.  But  God  is  no 
theatrical  scene-shifter,  shoving  aside  his  doors  and 
curtains  to  let  in  new  figures.  Would  dislocation 
more  than  gradual  action  show  his  might  ?  He  saw 
his  way  clear  through  !  What  characteristic  of  crea 
tion  is  wanting  in  the  imperceptibly  nice  operation  of 
his  hand  ?  A  cataclysm,  earthquake,  eruption,  thunder 
bolt,  billow,  startles  us  more.  But  is  there  greater 
ease  or  less  mystery  in  the  opening  of  a  leaf,  waxing  of 
the  dawn,  or  flow  of  the  tide?  The  sublimity  is  not 
God's  caldron  of  the  volcano,  or  kettle  of  the  water 
spout,  or  sledge-hammer  of  the  sea ;  but  the  atom  he 
makes  his  tool.  With  that,  too  small  for  our  sight, 
he  rears  the  mountains  from  the  depths  or  shaves  the 
rocks  to  the  plain,  blends  a  few  elements  into  potent 


ORIGIN.  277 

substances  thousand-fold  and  dissolves  them  again, 
strengthens  every  bone  and  swells  every  fibre,  or 
wastes  gigantic  sinews  away.  Nothing  can  turn  its 
edge.  With  that  chisel  too  small  to  see  he  shall  cut 
us  down,  lay  us  low  in  our  coffin,  and  with  that  trowel 
build  us  up  again.  His  finger  it  shall  be  to  pick  us 
out  of  our  grave ;  and  his  vital  sculpture,  not  by 
diminution  but  increase,  for  our  resurrection  into 
smooth,  seraphic  shapes.  What  are  those  strange 
powers  Goethe  writes  of  as  "  the  mothers  "  but  these 
agents  out  of  sight?  That  man  results  from  their 
inscrutable  instrumentation  is  no  disinheritance  from 
his  privilege  of  a  heavenly  birth. 

But  the  theory  of  man's  animal  derivation  is  sup 
posed  to  do  away  with  his  personal  identity.  If  this 
means  an  absolutely  separate  self,  so  that  your  will  or 
mine  is  an  independent  monad,  like  a  monolith  or 
monograph  standing  alone,  undetermined  by  motives 
and  unconnected  with  other  wills,  there  is  in  such  insu 
lation  no  personal  quality.  Personality  is  the  sound 
ing  through  us  of  no  private  wish,  but  of  universal 
truth,  as  his  part  does  through  the  actor,  or  a  tune 
through  pipe  or  string.  Personality  unites  us  with 
our  kind,  and  expresses  the  common  interest.  When, 
as  I  heard  a  host  tell  his  guests  at  table  iofall  to,  we 
set  about  satisfying  carnal  appetite,  or  parading  in  our 
peculiar  set  of  jewels  and  silks,  and  being  angry  at 
imitators  of  our  costume  or  turn-out,  or  seeking  selfish 
aggrandizement,  we  may  be  individual,  but  we  cease 
to  be  personal.  We  express  or  enhance  the  general 
welfare  no  more  than  a  hawk  stooping  for  its  prey,  a 
peacock  lifting  his  tail,  or  pigs  feeding  at  their  trough. 


278  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Isolation  is  not  the  quality  of  a  person,  but  rather  of  a 
brute.  Even  the  lower  creatures  shame  our  by-ends 
in  their  flocks  and  herds,  playing  together  as  I  lately 
saw  two  robins ;  and  as  dogs  delight  to,  more  than  to 
bark  and  bite.  I  think  Watts  maligned  them.  Men 
and  women  commonly  take  more  pleasure  in  a  quarrel 
than  they.  Do  not  the  wedges  of  emigrant  fowl,  that 
cleave  the  autumnal  sky,  show  in  such  sociality  of  a 
general  concern  some  degree  of  that  personality  our 
philosophy  denies?  Sympathetic  service  measures 
your  personality.  It  is  the  overflow  of  affection  from 
dateless  tribes. 

Woman,  the  flower  of  humanity,  like  the  sweet 
crystal  from  the  last  refinement  of  the  sugar-cane, 
seems  oftener  than  man  to  scorn  the  notion  of  animal 
origin.  Yet  what  more  is  her  beautiful  hair  than  a 
relic  from  the  skin  of  some  progenitor  beyond  Esau  ? 
Let  the  gay  lady  be  ashamed  rather  of  her  velvet  train 
sweeping  across  the  parlor-floor,  leaving  no  room  for 
anybody's  feet !  I  am  not  mortified  at  my  trail 
stretching  back  over  the  floor  of  creation,  in  nobody's 
way.  Is  it  less  credit  to  have  come  vitally  transmitted, 
or  transmuted  from  lower  but  ever  rising  orders,  than 
mechanically  dredged  out  of  the  ground?  Our  per 
sonal  identity  consists  in  our  intoning  what  inspires 
us  from  the  past  for  the  whole  present  and  future 
good,  through  our  particular  gift ;  as  a  special  melody 
is  voiced  by  the  entire  atmosphere  playing  through 
trumpet  or  flute.  But  the  individualism  that  would 
compass  an  exclusive  benefit  is  a  vice. 

Yet  no  charge  is  more  frequently  false.  We  are 
accused  of  individualism  for  declining  to  join  some 


ORIGIN.  279 

particular  sect.  Some  of  us  are  marked  as  flagrant 
examples  for  not  being  members  of  an  association 
or  conference.  Belong  to  what  party  you  will ;  but 
plead  "  Not  guilty "  when*  you  are  flung  at  because 
you  serve  none  in  politics  or  religion.  If  you  are  un 
social  and  unkind,  indifferent  to  philanthropic  enter 
prise,  an  enemy  to  the  freedom  in  others  you  enjoy 
yourself,  a  hoarder  of  advantage  at  the  expense  of  the 
common  stock,  then  you  are  individualistic  ;  but  not 
for  failing  to  be  an  active  zealot  in  any  denomination. 
Is  there  not  more  individualism  in  ambition  to  be 
prominent  on  the  platform,  where  some  men  and 
women  not  waiting  to  be  invited  procure  their  own 
opportunity  to  speak,  or  in  travelling  from  Dan  to 
Beersheba  for  small  upshot  of  help  to  the  community, 
and  getting  one's  name  clothed  with  flattering  compli 
ment  in  the  newspapers,  than  in  silence  and  absence 
for  disinterested  toils?  Was  Beethoven,  Raphael, 
Milton,  individual  in  the  bad  sense,  for  being  each  busy 
in  composing,  and  each  a  composition  of  the  breath 
of  God,  rather  than  running  every  day  to  some  clique 
or  club  ?  Let  truth  and  cheer  come  out  of  your  closet, 
as  Jesus  sent  them  from  mountain  and  desert  to  man 
kind  ;  and,  though  never  seen  where  men  most  do 
congregate,  who  shall  question  your  personal  claim? 
If  he  that  says  I  AM  be  our  Author,  persons  we  are, 
whether  we  can  tell  how  or  not.  Whence  I  came,  I 
will  not  bother  my  head.  Here  I  am  alive,  to  love 
you  and  worship  God.  What  if  I  cannot  account  for 
my  genealogy,  and  map  or  photograph  the  family 
tree?  Does  the  scientist  say  certain  phenomena  are 
all  ?  But  how  of  himself,  the  observer  ?  How  hap- 


280  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

pens  it  he  observes?  Will  he  please  to  analyze  his 
own  curiosity  to  put  things  in  a  row,  and  have  an 
hypothesis?  He  interests  me  more  than  the  strata 
and  coral-reefs,  and  fishes  and  beasts,  in  his  discourse. 
Why  leave  himself,  the  man,  out?  He  must  pardon 
me,  if  I  consider  the  experimenter  more  than  the 
retort  or  oyster-shell  in  his  hand.  He  is  a  person, 
offshoot  of  Person  Infinite,  in  whatever  bit  of  ante 
diluvian  cradle,  too  minute  to  see,  he  lay. 

But  many  philosophers  and  Christians  revolt  from 
this  unity  of  the  animal  with  the  man,  because  it  does 
away  with  immortality.  But  what  ground  is  weak 
ened,  on  which  you  have  credited  a  future  life  ?  Is  the 
Lord's  rising  proof  of  yours?  Is  that  rising  disproved 
because  man  is  older  than  the  garden  of  Eden,  has  a 
chimpanzee  for  his  far-off  cousin,  or  a  trilobite  for  his 
sire  ?  The  old  burial-service  implies  a  resurrection  of 
the  body.  Can  it  not  rise  as  easily  if  descended  from 
any  or  every  branch  of  the  animal  kingdom,  as  if 
composed,  as  the  story  tells,  of  the  crude  silt  it  shall 
dissolve  into,  or  of  the  gravel  dropping  on  its  casket 
from  the  sexton's  spade?  But  those  animals  in  the 
one  long  lineage  •  embracing  us  are  not  immortal : 
why  should  we  be  any  more  ?  What  know  we  of 
their  destiny,  but  from  that  Old  Testament  text  about 
"the  beasts  that  perish"?  Some  of  them  "better 
deserve  to  live,  are  more  faithful  and  patient,  than 
some  men  ;  show  more  consideration  and  conscience 
than  their  masters.  As  Bacon  says  man  is  the  dog's 
God,  the  dog  is  sometimes  more  worshipful  than  his 
owner.  That  beings  in  heaven  will  be  all  of  one  sort, 
nothing  but  angels,  as  we  commonly  conceive  them, 


ORIGIN.  28l 

with  crowns  and  palms  and  harps,  is  hard  to  think. 
It  would  be  monotonous  and  tiresome  !  There  must 
be  not  less,  but  more,  diversity  than  here.  The 
trouble  in  the  argument  is  not  any  prejudice  of  our 
prospects  from  the  new  theory  ;  but,  like  some  people 
who  have  got  on  in  the  world,  and  cannot  speak  to 
their  humbler  kith  and  kin,  we  do  not  want  to  have 
these  poor  quadrupeds  for  our  associates  because  we 
are  ashamed  of  the  connection.  Two  of  their  feet 
having  in  us  been  promoted  into  hands,  so  we  have 
got  the  upper  hand.  But,  in  the  birds,  as  if  God 
would  reprove  our  pride,  are  not  two  of  the  feet  be 
come  wings,  which  we  covet  and  expect  by  and  by? 
I  have  a  mighty  fine  notion  of  my  flesh,  and  hesitate 
to  think  it  bears  a  freight  of  saurian  monsters,  circu 
lates  megatherium  blood,  had  a  mastodon's  bulk  for 
its  crib,  is  the  bier  on  which  myriad  relics  of  vital 
antiquity  are  borne,  and  shall  find  its  own  grave  and 
revival  in  who  knows  what  coming  animated  forms ! 
But  why  should  I  be  made  of  finer  stuff?  God  has  no 
porcelain,  but  one  clay  ;  and  all  the  vital  fluid  at  bot 
tom  is  the  same.  The  materialist  tells  me  he  doubts 
immortality,  not  being  able  to  credit  the  reassembling 
of  his  particles  ;  and  he  says  to  the  bereaved,  "  I  have 
neither  faith  nor  philosophy  to  comfort  you."  But  we 
do  not  want  the  particles  reassembled !  When  my 
body  has  dropped,  let  it  go.  It  is  mine  no  longer. 
I  have  no  more  use  for  it :  let  me  be  reclothed  !  The 
theory  of  human  nature  as  part  of  a  grand  evolution, 
instead  of  a  haughty  pillar  standing  alone,  and  so 
more  apt  to  tumble  down,  encourages  my  hope.  If 


282  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

we  survive,  it  is  not  by  travel,  but  transformation, 
another  step  of  development  above  ourselves,  as  we 
are  above  something  else  that  went  before.  The 
problem  of  futurity  is  how  to  get  one  species  into 
another,  • —  the  species  man  into  the  species  angel ; 
and,  on  the  doctrine  of  strictly  specific  creation  or 
inconvertibility  of  species,  our  expectation  could  not 
flourish,  but  suffers  fatal  blight.  If  man  has  got  out 
of  an  immemorial  infancy  into  his  present  altitude, 
what  limits  shall  be  put  to  his  ascent?  It  is  all  dark 
and  unseen.  But  humanity  once  was  out  of  sight  and 
reach  as  are  the  cherubim  and  seraphim  now. 

Ifow  shall  we  come  to  port  across  the  sea?  God, 
whom  we  launched  and  sailed  from,  cannot  surprise 
us  with  the  celestial  more  than  the  terrestrial  shore. 
As,  in  the  Pacific,  some  wave  lifts  the  sailor's  boat  over 
the  reef  into  the  lagoon,  we  shall  rise.  Such  faith 
is  not  damped,  but  kindled,  by  the  idea  that  man  was 
made  not,  according  to  the  supposed  Scripture  chron 
ology,  by  a  sudden  thought,  six  thousand  years  ago,  — 
but  was  from  measureless  cycles  looked  forward  to, 
with  long-minded  plan,  in  the  least  structure  and 
faintest  beginning  of  organized  life.  If  I  was  thought 
of  so  early,  contemplated  before  the  morning-stars 
sang  together,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world ; 
if  the  great  Architect  had  in  view  every  room  and 
column  of  my  proportions  in  his  original  design,  so 
that  each  joint  of  form  and  fit  of  faculty  has  an  an 
tiquity  to  which  the  Pyramids  are  but  yesterday,  and 
the  globe  itself  but  as  a  painter's  easel ;  if  the  sky  be 
the  Artist's  chamber,  and  time  my  Author's  stepping- 


ORIGIN.  283 

stone,  —  then  may  I  not  believe  that  the  care  for  me, 
which  was  from  everlasting,  will  be  to  everlasting ; 
and  sing  with  David,  "  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul 
in  the  grave  ;  "  and  say  with  Jesus,  "  Now  come  I  to 
thee"? 


XII. 

CORRELATION. 

THE  mind  seeks  unity.  He  has  no  genius  for 
philosophy  who  is  seduced  and  satisfied  with 
any  multiplicity,  trinity,  or  duality.  The  heart,  too, 
is  content  only  with  the  One,  mistake  that  One  though 
it  may.  The  dissipated  man  is  he  whose  affection 
roves  among  a  thousand  objects,  however  he  abstain 
from  sensual  indulgence.  But  the  true  soul  loves  one 
worth,  delights  in  one  beauty  appearing  in  many 
forms.  Also,  the  conscience  discerns  one  right  in 
manifold  circumstances  and  cases  of  business,  personal 
intercourse,  and  social  reform  :  as  Cicero  said  so  long 
ago,  sublimely,  "  There  is  not  one  law  at  Athens,  and 
another  at  Rome."  The  soul,  moreover,  worships 
one  Spirit.  The  sin  of  idolatry  consists  not  simply 
in  fastening  veneration  on  an  outward  thing ;  but  the 
moment  it  is  diverted  from  the  Infinite  Unity,  it  will 
be  distracted  among  "  gods  many  and  lords  many," 
and  catch  up  any  fancy  for  its  fetish.  The  objection 
to  defining  religion  as  "a  recognition  of  the  facts 
and  laws  of  the  universe  "  is  not  only  that  it  misses 
the  sense  of  Deity,  -^-  the  trembling  and  peace  of  the 
breast,  —  but  that,  beside  leaving  out  person,  it  divides 
thought. 


CORRELATION.  285 

Yet  difference  is  not  duplicity.  All  diversity  is 
unity  produced,  as  a  million  sunbeams  continue  the 
sun.  It  is  the  radiation  of  God.  It  is  the  graduation 
of  essence  into  substance,  and  of  substance  into  exist 
ence.  It  is  extension  of  centre  into  circumference, 
and  general  into  particular ;  there  being  no  special 
providence  of  exception  to  eternal  rule.  Deuce  is 
the  devil.  There  are  no  two  where  the  second  is  not 
part  or  repetition  of  the  first  and  last  —  alpha  and 
omega  —  to  whom  will  go  the  homage  which  we  must 
pay,  if  we  do  not  pervert.  He  will  idolize  who 
does  not  adore.  The  materialist,  who  scorns  the  no 
tion  of  prayer,  adopts  a  huger  idol  fashioned  to  his 
hand  than  was  ever  set  up  in  Mexican  temple  or 
savage  hut. 

In  the  modern  doctrine  of  correlation  of  forces  is  a 
blazing  illustration  of  this  unitary  quality.  Correla 
tion  of  truths  and  duties  is  as  perfect  as  of  the  parallels 
and  meridians  of  the  globe.  We  sail  on  a  great  circle 
when  we  heed  the  smallest  obligation.  An  eminent 
man,  reproached  with  having  been  a  drummer  when 
he  was  a  boy,  asked,  "  Didn't  I  drum  well  ?  "  When 
Mr.  Bergh  collects  half  a  bushel  of  cunningly  con 
cealed  spurs  from  beneath  the  horses'  bits  in  Central 
Park,  how  distinguish  his  from  any  apostle's  benev 
olent  zeal  ? 

There  is,  then,  such  a  central  unity  in  the  human 
frame,  we  can  let  on  our  entire  strength  for  any 
task,  —  as  the  Merrimac  turns  a  spindle,  or  the  Cochit- 
uate  throws  up  a  column,  with  the  complete  height 
and  weight  of  its  uppermost  tide.  We  say  of  a 
man  prompt  in  action,  cordial  in  salutation,  or  zeal- 


286  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

ous  for  any  end,  he  is  not  double-minded  or  half 
hearted,  but  whole-souled. 

One  power  in  diverse  manifestation  is  the  lesson  of 
Nature.  Light,  heat,  electricity,  magnetism,  and  mo 
tion  are  the  same  essence,  convertible  into  each  other, 
displaying  that  single  manifold  Force  we  call  God,  in 
the  physical  universe. 

The  same  fact  is  in  our  constitution.  The  senses  — 
sight,  hearing,  taste,  smell,  touch  —  are  different  modes 
of  perception,  and  meet  in  one  sensorium. 

Moreover,  the  faculties  of  the  mind  —  memory, 
judgment,  imagination,  wit,  and  will  —  express  the 
various  activity  of  the  one  intellect,  or  inmost  knowing 
instinct,  which  remembers,  imagines,  chooses,  invents, 
or  compares. 

So  with  the  character.  Truth,  justice,  love,  good 
ness,  courage,  mercy,  are  not  contradictory  or  alien 
one  from  the  other.  An  identical  conscience  is  dis 
tributed  to  the  need  of  the  hour.  All  the  virtues  of 
behavior  are  offspring  of  one  virtue  in  the  breast ;  and 
if  a  man  is  guilty  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all.  As, 
in  the  fountain  on  the  Common,  the  same  water  is 
played  through  a  number  of  jets  into  the  likeness  of  a 
pillar,  a  flower,  or  a  fan,  —  all  that  is  requisite  being 
to  have  a  head  of  water  to  which  to  fit  every  mouth 
piece,  —  so  good  affection  streams  into  whatever  con 
duct  our  relations  determine,  or  the  occasion  demands. 
Outward  integrity  means  this  complete  equipment 
from  one  holy  purpose. 

We  are  governed  by  circumstances,  say  some.  Not 
we,  only  the  lines  of  our  activity.  The  power  or 
quality  of  our  purpose  is  not  governed  by  circum- 


CORRELATION.  287 

stances.  Is  the  lightning  governed  by  the  lightning- 
rod?  The  circumstances  are  only  the  conductors  of 
the  "  centre-stances,"  in  our  motives  and  aims,  be  they 
low  and  selfish,  or  lofty  and  humane.  Wind  and 
wave  are  circumstances.  Is  the  pilot  victim  of  cir 
cumstances  when  the  ship  is  cast  away,  or  of  his  own 
ignorance  and  negligence?  The  same  circumstances 
carried  other  vessels  to  port.  The  Scotia  arrives 
and  the  Cambria  goes  down  in  the  same  gale.  By 
the  same  temptations  which  some  souls  founder  in 
others  are  sped. 

We  think  one  moral  property  higher  or  better  than 
another.  But  each  is  of  tantamount  worth.  Justice 
is  as  good  as  benevolence.  Truth  is  never  contrary  to 
mercy.  Courage  does  not  withstand  meekness.  Self- 
respect  is  not  opposed  to  humility.  All  these  traits  are 
but  the  methods  one  intent  operates  through  by  turns. 
To  be  master  of  the  situation  is  to  know  which  part  of 
speech  in  the  voice  and  word  of  God  is  in  order,  what 
temper  to  show,  what  stand  with  interlocutors  or  inter- 
actors  to  take.  Doing  with  the  sum  total  of  our  being 
what  Providence  in  the  premises  calls  for,  that  is  per 
fection. 

The  judge  dispenses  equity  on  the  bench.  Stern 
we  call  him,  or  inexorable.  But  is  it  not  kindness  to 
the  criminal  to  arrest  him  in  his  course  ?  Were  it  not 
unkind  to  the  community  to  let  him  go  scot-free  ? 

We  protest  against  the  enacting  of  hell  on  earth  in 
this  horrid  business  of  war.  A  war  of  words  is  de 
clared  against  Bismarck,  and  a  woman's  congress 
called  for  peace.  But  whether  fighting  is  wrong 
depends  on  whether  it  is  in  place,  —  the  thing  in  the 


288  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Divine  plan  at  the  time  to  be  done.  You  see  the  refuse 
of  the  field,  at  certain  seasons,  raked  together  by  the 
farmer,  and  the  heap  set  on  fire.  What  is  war  but 
the  flame  with  which  the  great  Husbandman  burns  up 
the  refuse  of  sin  and  folly  in  the  field  of  the  world  ? 
Is  it  necessary,  unavoidable,  this  Judgment- day? 
Then  it  is  divine.  The  Prussian  minister  wishes  to 
unify  Germany,  and  out  of  a  bundle  of  States  like 
loosened  rods  to  make  a  great  nation.  France  is 
jealous  that  Germany  will  be  too  strong,  as  England 
was  that  America  would  ;  and  war  is  the  incident  he 
has  to  encounter  in  his  design,  and  must  manage  as 
he  best  may.  It  was  the  incident  we  had  to  encounter 
for  the  same  purpose,  —  to  preserve,  bind  together, 
and  new-create  our  own  land.  At  last,  the  French 
fight  not  for  conquest  but  national  self-preservation. 
Is  the  soldier,  the  volunteer,  or  drafted,  instrument  to 
this  end,  on  either  side  a  savage  wild  beast  and  mere 
brute?  Should  we  allow  anybody  to  say  it  in  our 
case  ?  No  :  the  man  who,  when  fighting  alone  was 
left  the  last  resort  and  means  of  salvation  for  country, 
for  liberty,  for  humanity,  fought  and  fell  in  the  trench 
or  wilderness,  on  the  plain,  or  bloody  slippery  deck 
when  the  Cumberland  went  down,  not  hating  his 
enemy  or  the  public  enemy,  whom  yet  he  saw  it  was 
indispensable  to  overcome,  —  that  man  died  as  nobly 
as  any  passive  sufferer  persecuted  to  death,  burnt  or 
hung  by  religious  or  political  foes.  "  I  have  no  ill- 
will  to  the  South,"  said  Putnam  :  "I  hope  they  will 
fight  well." 

The  martyr    is   thought  a  grander   character  than 
the  hero.     Either  is  alike  grand,  as  either  is   fit  for 


CORRELATION.  289 

the  hour.  When  one  said,  "John  Brown  made  the 
gallows  glorious  like  the  cross,"  some  were  shocked 
that  should  be  said  of  the  armed  invader  of  Harper's 
Ferry.  But  his  purpose,  in  the  sublime  bravery  of 
attacking  a  sovereign  State  with  a  handful  of  men, 
and  the  patience  as  sublime  of  submitting  to  the  sen 
tence  of  the  court,  —  remarking,  as  he  went  to  the 
gibbet,  on  the  beauty  of  the  Virginia  hills,  —  were 
the  same  temper  that  Master  and  apostle  showed  on 
Roman  engines  of  torture.  He  bound  up  martyr  and 
hero  in  his  own  person. 

One  soul  moved  by  one  Spirit  maintains  its  level 
best  in  every  exigency.  We  speak  of  cardinal  virtues. 
But  every  virtue  is  cardinal  that  is  seasonable.  Only 
put  the  whole  of  yourself  into  the  errand  of  the  mo 
ment,  as  the  ocean  makes  high  tide  successively  at 
each  point  of  the  shore.  The  spider  sits  in  the  centre 
of  its  web  of  myriad  strands.  Whatever  interferes 
with  one  of  those  gossamer  lines  draws  the  whole 
creature  bodily,  in  watch  and  act,  to  that  point.  A 
many-sided  man  we  style  him  whose  talent  applies  at 
all  quarters  with  equal  ease.  Cast  your  entire  vitality 
and  eternal  redemption  on  a  hair-breadth  of  instant 
responsibility,  as  our  Chicago  brothers  did  at  the  fire. 

A  woman  is  insulted,  and  the  sphere  of  her  sensi 
bility  invaded.  She  knows  it,  and  the  villain-invader 
knows.  Her  whole  womanhood  rises  to  resent  and 
repel  the  hostile  or  disrespectful  approach.  The 
schoolmen  said  the  whole  of  God  is  in  every  particle  : 
the  whole  of  her  is  at  the  point  of  menace.  She  is 
gentle  and  humble,  charitable,  a  Lady  Bountiful, 
gracious  and  sweet  as  summer  to  your  courtesy.  But 

19 


290  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

your  rude  encroachment  shall  discover  how  much 
less  terrible  the  wrath  of  the  lion  than  the  wrath 
of  the  lamb.  The  recoil  from  indecency,  affront  at 
insolent  familiarity,  rebuff  of  injury,  is  as  lofty,  be 
comes  her  as  much,  pleases  God  as  truly,  and  is 
entered  in  as  shining  letters  in  the  recording  angel's 
book,  as  her  most  generous  gifts  and  loving  accents 
and  winning  looks,  by  which,  with  parallel  closeness, 
some  other  position  is  matched.  The  soul  has  no 
corps  de  reserve.  All  is  engaged.  Run,  without 
scruple,  to  the  obligation  now  ringing  at  the  door.  It 
has  been  said,  by  a  famous  doctor  of  divinity,  Jesus 
would  not  have  driven  the  traders  out  of  the  temple 
at  the  close  of  his  career.  A  scourge  for  others  less 
became  him  whose  crucifixion  was  his  crown  !  But 
that  Father's  business  he  was  about  having  many 
departments  and  details,  —  now  a  disputation  with  the 
doctors,  and  now  a  last  supper  with  his  friends,  — 
whatever  demonstration  was  timely,  each  diverse 
performance  or  endurance  that  embodied  unqualified 
devotion  proved  the  same  worth ;  and  he  needs  not 
the  apology  of  some  that  the  lash  may  have  lighted 
only  on  the  lazy  oxen,  unconscious  of  profaning  the 
marble  shrine,  when  it  belonged  so  much  more  richly 
to  the  human  chafferers  that  were  switched  out.  It 
was  the  same  whole  and  faithful  soul,  changing  its 
operation  as  the  conditions  changed,  that  fell  to  the 
ground  with  the  bloody  sweat  in  the  Garden.  He 
was  not  in  the  despair  which  radical  and  conservative 
theologians  suppose.  But  the  burdens  were  so  great, 
he  had  to  summon  all  his  strength,  even  that  he 
ordinarily  used  to  stand  up  with,  to  sustain  them. 


CORRELATION.  29! 

With  economy,  he  accomplished  every  jot  of  the  de 
sign  before  him  there  and  then.  At  a  hard  question 
we  drop  the  head,  because  we  need  the  power  it  is 
held  up  by  to  think  with.  Some  persons,  when  they 
wish  to  reflect  expeditiously  and  with  all  their  might, 
lie  down  at  full  length.  Jesus  prostrated  himself,  to 
concentrate  his  capacity  for  what  Heaven  bade,  —  not 
to  give  up  ! 

This  is  the  sum  of  morals.  For  what  work  strikes 
the  clock?  Meet  the  emergency, be  it  action  or  resig 
nation,  in  zeal  or  self-control,  with  all  the  genius 
that  lies  in  you,  —  now  for  speed,  anon  masterly  inac 
tivity,  as  the  engine  uses  the  same  pressure  of  steam 
to  go  forward  or  back.  Each  is  good,  each  is  best 
alternately,  according  to  the  object  in  view.  But  each 
must  have  the  whole  power,  whichever  way  it  goes 
on  the  track.  Do  not  try  to  move  two  ways  at  once, 
with  your  mind  more  than  with  your  vehicle.  The 
result  is  obliquity  and  overthrow,  not  rectitude  in 
either.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  "  a  divided  duty  :  " 
'tis  always  simple.  The  eye  cannot  look  on  two 
things,  even  separate  panes  of  glass,  with  the  same 
glance,  but  passes  with  lightning  rapidity  from  the 
first  to  the  second.  Yet  a  covert  purpose  or  by-end, 
instead  of  the  ostensible  one,  is  the  great  sin  of  man 
kind.  We  call  it  diplomacy,  policy,  expediency  :  "  All 
which  words,"  I  heard  my  friend  say,  "  I  hate."  We 
say  of  a  man,  who  is  always  after  something  other 
than  he  professes  or  pretends,  that  he  has  two  crowns 
in  his  head,  making  a  type  of  the  hair  which  in  some 
heads  is  confused  by  curling  to  a  point  in  two  circles, 
and  hard  to  comb  out.  The  real  man  or  woman  is 


292  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

often  so  twisted  as  to  be  impossible  to  get  at.  There 
is  no  simplicity,  or  central  and  all-absorbing  affection 
or  aim.  "  There  are  two,"  is  said  of  an  inconsistent 
man.  Sometimes  there  are  twenty.  How  many 
a  friend  will  assign  false  motives  for  his  conduct ! 
He  has  neglected  us  somehow,  and  wants  to  excuse 
himself.  So  he  tells  how  much  he  wanted  to  be 
with  us,  but  had  to  go  elsewhere.  "  I  wanted  to  be  in 
your  house,  or  at  church."  No  :  you  did  not.  People 
do  what  they  want  to !  You  want  to  keep  your 
friend,  but  not  your  vow.  As  easily  serve  God  and 
Mammon ;  as  soon  pull  opposite  poles  together.  A 
fictitious  reason  for  what  we  do  or  fail  to  do  is  the 
commonest  lie,  and  the  worst ;  for  it  is  a  lie  we  cannot 
prove  upon  anybody,  or  properly  charge  him  with. 
It  is  lying  in  that  interior  sphere  we  cannot  presume 
to  inspect.  The  lie  of  circumstance,  saying  the  thing 
that  is  not,  is  harmless  in  comparison.  For  that  we 
can  provide  some  antidote.  If  you  have  prevaricated 
in  act,  prevaricate  not  also  in  speech.  Your  apology 
is  the  dirty  sponge,  adding  more  uncleanness  than  it 
removes.  We  do  not  want  a  part  or  fraction.  "  Out 
upon  this  half-faced  fellowship  !  "  Neutrality,  indiffer 
ence,  facing  both  ways,  says  Dante,  is  hateful  to  God 
and  to  the  enemies  of  God. 

Concentred  energy  is  the  miracle.  The  man  in 
the  lighthouse  or  observatory  is  all  eye,  and  can  see 
a  glint  of  the  tossing  bark,  far  off  in  the  storm,  when 
you  can  see  nothing.  It  is  because  the  whole  of  him 
sees.  You  did  not  notice?  Your  inadvertence  is 
your  fault.  Perception  is  integrity.  Not  to  mind  is 
not  to  obey.  There  is  a  correlation  of  the  vices. 


CORRELATION.  293 

Do  not  cheating  and  lies,  drunkenness  and  lust,  the 
spendthrift  and  thief,  go  together?  Take  home  one 
of  Satan's  relations,  and  the  whole  family  will  follow. 
Be  profuse,  and  you  will  be  mean :  be  ungenerous, 
and  you  will  be  unjust.  "  Economy  is  revenue" 
thundered  the  British  orator.  Frugality  is  the  fund  of 
charity.  "  Be  just,  before  you  are  generous"?  No: 
be  just,  and  you  will  be  generous.  The  politeness  of 
the  man  that  has  just  swindled  me  was  part  of  his 
theft :  it  was  the  velvet  over  the  claw.  Does  he  see 
how  he  wrongs  himself,  like  the  mower  striking  at  a 
harmless  creature  with  the  handle  of  his  scythe,  and 
cutting  off  his  own  head  with  the  blade  ?  Profanity 
in  the  street  puts  on  another  guise  in  the  sanctuary. 
But  does  an  honest  oath  break  with  God  more  than  a 
formal  prayer? 

Excellencies  cluster  like  grapes.  In  our  version, 
"  add  to  your  faith,  knowledge,"  with  the  rest  of  the 
list,  the  figure  of  a  chorus  in  the  Greek  word  is  lost. 
Three  Graces,  nine  Muses,  three  Furies,  —  always 
a  choir !  Every  virtue,  said  the  sage  doctor,  hangs 
round  filial  piety.  In  our  cheap  moralizing,  we  set 
the  heart  and  head  in  opposition.  But,  when  Napo 
leon's  brother  complained  of  the  Emperor's  want  of 
affection,  he  answered,  "  My  love  has  the  dimensions 
of  my  mind,"  —  not  weak  fondling  of  a  kinsman,  but 
legislation  for  Europe ! 

Thought  is  correlate  of  feeling,  goes  as  deep  in  the 
mind  of  God  or  man.  The  preacher  in  doubting  this 
is  a  sentimentalist,  not  a  sage.  We  oppose  the  inward 
to  the  outward.  They  are  not  antagonist,  but  part  and 
counterpart.  The  wind  that  bloweth  where  it  listeth 


294  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

sometimes  rises  within  and  sometimes  breezes  from 
without.  I  have  felt  it  in  a  Quaker  meeting,  and 
through  the  Lord's  Supper,  making  every  vessel, 
touched  by  departed  saints,  dear.  Any  way,  every 
way,  and  always,  let  us  turn  to  take  it  with  our 
sails. 

The  vital  point  is  that  which  the  physicist  overlooks. 
In  the  relations  he  loses  the  relationship.  What  is  the 
correlating  power  but  the  Living  Absolute,  whose  rest 
is  all  motion,  whose  abode  is  in  every  reference,  and 
whose  immutability  ceaseless  change?  In  vain  to 
separate  the  spectacle  into  portions,  make  specialties 
of  study,  and  affirm  there  are  only  phenomena.  The 
countless  drops  run  out  of  and  into  one.  To  that 
which  renders  it  possible  for  a  single  energy  or  ele 
ment  to  appear  now  as  light  and  now  as  electricity, 
now  as  memory  and  now  as  judgment,  now  as  recti 
tude  and  now  as  wisdom,  now  as  vision  and  now 
as  love,  now  a  principle  and  now  a  rite,  we  must 
bend. 

The  correlation  of  human  qualities  arises  from  that 
of  the  Divine  attributes.  It  is  a  false  notion  of  both 
Orthodox  and  Liberal  that  God's  equity  was  ever  post 
poned  or  preferred  to  his  pity.  The  laws  of  justice 
are  not  confounded  in  some  mixture  or  after-thought 
called  mercy,  as  forgiveness  outright,  or  a  composition 
for  offenders  by  some  innocent  proxy  suffering  in  their 
stead.  There  is  no  such  misprision  of  treason,  or  com 
pounding  of  felony,  or  partaking  of  crime.  Leniency 
to  a  bad  man  may  be  the  greatest  cruelty.  Indulgence 
is  a  morass  of  surrender  where  no  virtue  of  kindness 
or  sincerity  can  plant  its  foot,  or  a  fellow-creature  be 


CORRELATION.  295 

reached  with  help.  The  Deity  is  no  weakling  to  set  us 
such  an  example.  Let  our  demand  of  honor  and  in 
fliction  of  discipline  emulate  his !  His  retribution  is 
not  revenge,  but  kindness  suited  to  the  case.  Mercy 
does  not  so  much,  as  Shakspeare  says,  temper  justice, 
as  express  it ;  and  law  is  the  hand  of  love. 

Human  callings  are  correlative.  What  iniquity  to 
set  one  honest  trade  against  another,  or  make  capital 
ists  and  artisans  foes  !  The  correlation  of  manual  and 
mental  labor  is  the  core  of  political  economy.  The 
provoker  of  a  duel  betwixt  them  forgets  their  common 
bond.  He  is  a  superficial  moralist  to  classify,  as  the 
old  mineralogists  did  their  stones,  not  by  inward  na 
ture  but  external  marks.  Is  not  the  body  concerned 
in  all  labor?  Yet  labor  is  never  a  thing  of  mere 
muscle  or  nerve.  Are  not  intelligence,  will,  fidelity, 
and  the  sweat  of  the  brow  alike  in  the  student's  and  the 
digger's  task  ?  The  mechanic  often  gets  better  wages 
for  easier  effort  than  the  poet  or  the  priest,  who  some 
times  come  near  to  starve.  Some  of  the  law-offices 
and  one-half  the  pulpits  are  less  remunerative  than 
the  master-carpenter's  shop.  The  toil  of  the  man 
that  makes  my  road,  lays  out  my  grounds,  turns  my 
rock  ravine  into  a  stairway  to  the  sea,  and  beneath 
boulders  and  rough  fragments  —  the  wreck  of  ages  — 
discovers  a  beach,  I  rate  as  of  more  value  than  some 
sermons  and  prayers.  Were  all  the  mechanics  em 
ployed  in  rearing  the  temple,  or  do  some  conduct  the 
exercises  within?  Ceremonies  may  be  more  lifeless 
than  any  tools,  trowel  or  axe.  There  are  automatons 
in  the  professions  ;  there  are  thinkers  in  the  mill  and 
field  ;  and  he  may  add  less  value  to  the  Commonwealth 


296  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

who  hammers  at  an  argument  or  homily  than  he  who 
beats  on  a  lap-stone  or  a  nail.  How  brainless  or  un 
fair  not  to  heed  the  finer  conscientious  property  which 
may  appear  in  any  avocation,  and  is  absent  from  the 
unfaithful  in  every  class,  but  should  unite  all !  The 
agitator  assumes  a  conflict  of  interests  that  does  not 
exist.  He  is  a  fish  so  used  to  troubled  waters,  that  he 
feels  lost  and  not  at  home,  unable  to  swim,  in  the 
smooth.  In  default  of  an  angel,  he  descends  himself 
to  stir  up  the  pool,  in  which  none  will  be  healed. 
With  no  mystic  quality  of  worshipping  God  in  history 
or  sympathetic  imagination  of  mankind,  his  mind  has 
a  cruel  edge.  Sincere  and  earnest  he  may  be,  but 
without  wisdom  or  depth. 

No  pursuit  is  virtuous,  only  some  man  in  every 
pursuit.  Let  us  not  be  deceived  by  appearances.  You 
are  looking  in  the  wrong  place,  we  say  to  one  who 
discerns  not  some  object  or  resemblance  we  point  out. 
How  continually  we  do  that !  Before  a  picture  of  a 
dying  soldier  and  of  a  sister  of  charity,  a  keen  dis- 
cerner  of  look  and  posture  said,  "  I  see  the  religion 
here  in  the  face  and  figure  of  the  wounded  man  more 
than  of  the  woman  who  assumes  to  be  its  minister." 
Were  the  missionaries,  who  sent  a  tract  about  the  im 
penitent  thief  to  distribute  in  the  army,  themselves 
more  honest  than  the  brave  troops  that  went  down  to 
the  bloody  plain? 

We  set  the  Past  against  the  Future.  They  are 
friends.  "Does  he  approve  your  view?"  I  was  very 
recently  asked,  respecting  a  great  scholar.  "  Not 
now,"  was  my  reply ;  "  but  when  it  becomes  history 
he  will."  He  that  but  conceives  a  thought  finds  in 


CORRELATION.  297 

another's  expression  of  it  only  a  premature  birth.  But 
tradition  and  inspiration  agree  ; 

And  sage  experience  doth  attain 
To  something  like  prophetic  strain." 

If  the  critic  denies  only  to  define,  restricts  and  excludes 
error  to  affirm  truth,  is  he  not  conservative  ?  Let  me 
never  write  a  line  nor  speak  a  word  whose  object  is  to 
pull  down  !  I  would  only  tear  away  to  build,  and  blow 
up  to  arrest  the  fire,  —  as  Jesus  destroyed  to  fulfil. 
In  a  battery  is  the  positive  hostile  to  the  negative  pole  ? 
The  organizer  has  no  quarrel  with  the  seer.  Without 
vision  every  institution  would  decay,  like  a  body  tin- 
supplied  with  fresh  blood.  The  humblest  members 
have  no  strife  with  the  highest.  When  my  head  failed, 
I  took  to  my  feet.  On  the  vessel's  deck,  amid  burning 
sand,  under  the  peak  of  Teneriffe,  through  the  pine 
barrens  of  Florida,  and  along  the  Atlantic  shore,  I 
walked  back  into  heart  and  brain  some  drop  of  feeling, 
some  spark  of  thought.  Society  is  a  growth  ;  and  he 
is  a  public  enemy  who  would  interrupt  its  continuity, 
or  thinks  to  cure  its  diseases  by  taking  it  apart.  But 
it  feeds  on  truth  as  new  as  last  year's  wheat.  It  is  — 

"  One  army  of  the  living  God." 

But  does  the  host  incur  danger  from  the  scouts  it  sends 
ahead,  to  be  in  Milton's  phrase  "all  ear"?  Aber- 
nethy  detected  disease  at  a  glance.  Let  us  honor 
the  political  physician  who  notes  and  treats  the  nation's 
ills. 

In  the  vast  system,  let  each,  resigning  selfish  inde 
pendence,  act  his  part  and  receive  his  just  income  of 
love  and  peace.  "  Keep  to  the  right  as  the  law 


298  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

directs  !  "  Ask  only  what  belongs  to  you.  The  world 
is  large.  There  is  room  fbr  me  and  thee.  Do  friends 
drop  off  and  favors  cease  ?  It  is  no  accident.  Do  not 
regret  or  deprecate,  do  not  wish  or  forebode.  Let 
go  what  is  not  by  eternal  affinity  yours.  Your  tax  you 
cannot  avoid,  your  property  you  will  never  lose.  "  I 
will  not  strain  myself,"  said  Daniel  Webster,  "  to  kill  a 
fly."  The  bar  that  keeps  you  out  you  cannot  break  : 
the  bolt  admitting  you  turns  with  ease.  This  correla 
tion  is  God's  high  chancellor  to  see  that  justice  is 
done.  Do  you  disparage  my  service,  and  drop  out 
of  the  circle  of  my  companions  and  friends  ;  and  do 
you  justify  your  desertion  with  poor  apologies,  putting 
your  disloyalty  on  false  grounds?  Waste  not  so  your 
words,  nor  spend  a  thought  or  breath  on  the  matter ! 
I  shall  not  suffer :  take  care  of  yourself,  and  have  no 
alarm  for  me.  Like  the  watchers  in  the  judges'  boat 
at  the  regatta  on  the  river  or  the  sea,  God  has  his 
sentinels  in  the  heart  to  secure  fair  play  and  punish 
foul.  I  shall  make  up  in  self-respect  for  your  dis 
countenance,  just  as,  with  my  humility,  I  shall  set 
limits  to  your  praise.  What  are  the  scales  on  your 
court-house  to  Heaven's  universal  balance?  Great 
evils  to  the  black  man  were  predicted  from  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery.  But  a  right  to  his  own  earnings  sup 
plies  motive  better  than  came  from  the  lash. 

"Nebber  you  fear,  though  nebber  you  hear 
The  driver  blow  his  horn." 

Against  all  temptations  to  treachery  one  thought  is  an 
overweight,  —  that  of  being  a  pure  instrument  of  truth. 
The  idea  of  God's  service,  in  that  of  his  creatures, 


CORRELATION.  299 

clean  of  all  pride  or  vanity,  or  lust  of  gain  or  count 
of  worldly  success,  stirs  a  joy  with  which  no  human 
favor  can  compare.  Applause  is  a  passing,  pattering 
rain ;  popularity,  the  morning  cloud  and  early  dew : 
benefit  is  the  well  springing  up  unto  everlasting  life. 


XIII. 

CHARACTER. 

WHAT  reason  the  Oriental  had  to  suppose  di 
vinity  or  divination  in  dreams  I  know  not ;  only 
that  I  dreamed  being  in  a  great  conference  discussing 
Jesus  Christ,  till  his  name  flew  back  and  forth  as 
between  battle-door  and  shuttlecock,  when  at  last  he 
himself  rose  in  the  meeting  to  hush  and  astonish  all 
with  the  words,  "  Touch  me  not !  "  What  meant  that 
repulse  of  Mary  after  the  reported  resurrection?  Was 
he  a  ghost,  such  as  Homer  or  Virgil  tells  of,  whom 
the  hand  would  pass  through  ?  Did  he  reserve  his 
first  greeting  for  another?  Rather,  saluting  Mary  and 
asking  Thomas  to  test  his  flesh  and  blood  reality,  he 
yet  declares  to  the  fond  woman,  The  time  to  dote  on 
me  is  past :  God  whom  I  go  to  is  as  much  your  Father 
as  mine.  Let  no  critic  call  rude  his  rejection  of  what 
ever  sign  of  regard  she  so  naturally  rushed  to  give  ! 
He  threw  cold  water  on  her  affectionate  zeal  to  con 
centrate  its  flame  for  the  shaping  of  all  duty  at  the 
forge  of  her  heart. 

This  was  the  topmost  round  of  Christ's  character. 
One  step  above  self-sacrifice  on  the  cross  was  the  self- 
abnegation  after  the  crucifixion.  Not  that  he  would 


CHARACTER.  3OI 

disparage  himself.  He  knew  and  asserted  he  was  a 
showing  of  God  ;  but,  having  shown  him,  he  would 
retire.  What  appearance  on  the  stage  could  match 
such  self-withdrawal !  Does  any  action  transcend  a 
graceful  taking  leave?  He  was  a  medium,  whose 
virtue  is  to  display  the  object,  —  like  a  window  where 
nothing  but  the  entry  lamp  is  visible  within.  "  You 
cannot  see  him  :  he  is  behind  his  Master,"  said  Father 
Taylor,  of  a  famous  preacher.  You  see  not  the  Mas 
ter  as  he  reveals  the  all-informing  soul ;  as  you  do  not 
the  man  who  unveils  a  picture  in  some  great  cathe 
dral,  to  be  the  valet  of  its  beauty  the  business  of  his 
life.  On  the  Wengern  Alp  I  admired  the  spotless  air 
that  hid  and  denied  itself,  to  draw  the  Jungfrau  from 
its  ten-miles  distance  almost  to  touch  my  eye.  This 
temper  of  self-renunciation  Jesus  hinted  not  at  the  close 
only,  but  throughout  his  career.  He  resented  being 
called  good  :  he  was  willing  anybody  should  speak 
against  him,  but  not  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  He 
insisted  it  was  expedient  for  him  to  go  away,  to  in 
troduce  the  Comforter  whom  his  longer  stay  would 
eclipse,  but  whose  coming  would  lead  beyond  his 
lessons  into  all  truth.  What  finer  incident  in  history 
than  that  after  the  walk  to  Emmaus,  when  at  the 
village  table  the  old  gesture  in  breaking  bread  be 
trayed  and  they  knew  him,  and  "  he  vanished  out  of 
their  sight"!  As  the  absence  of  his  statue  brought 
Brutus  to  mind,  Christ  was  manifest  less  in  his  advent 
than  his  exit.  It  is  a  paradox  of  beauty.  His  arrest 
of  us  is  his  refusing  to  be  stopped  with.  Did  Cassar 
or  Cromwell  or  Washington  decline  the  crown?  He 
would  be  neither  king  nor  idol.  "  Oh,  that  is  he!"  we 


3<D2  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

say,  when  some  man's  quality  is  spoken  of.  We  have 
Jesus  only  in  being  passed  on  by  him.  To  worship  him, 
if  it  be  Orthodoxy,  is  infidelity  and  rejection  of  Chris 
tianity,  and  flat  contradiction  of  his  own  bidding.  To 
make  him  a  finality  is  to  make  him  a  fetish.  As  an 
idol  we  lose  him  altogether.  In  the  novel  "Jane  Eyre," 
Rochester  says  he  could  seize  the  woman  he  loves, 
but  the  essence  he  seeks  would  be  gone.  O  fond  be 
liever  !  in  your  so  tight  grasp  of  your  Lord,  you  miss 
him.  Only  your  light  touch  of  him,  feeling  after 
what  he  stood  representative  for,  can  appreciate  him. 
Let  me  alone,  he  says  to  those  who  would  still  hang 
upon  him.  This  is  not  his  peculiarity.  Of  all  true 
regard  for  friend  or  fellow-creature,  the  proof  is  not 
gross  demonstration  but  delicacy,  penetrating  through 
the  outward  form  and  bearing  to  what  they  mean  and 
are  missionaries  of.  When  Montaigne  says,  "  I  offer 
myself  faintly  and  bluntly  to  him  whose  I  most  effect 
ually  am,"  he  puts  a  good  understanding  before 
any  kiss  or  caress.  To  every  ecclesiastical  sentimen 
talist  Jesus  gives  this  tonic :  Live  not  for  me,  but  the 
objects  I  live  for ;  love  not  me  as  you  do  the  righteous 
will.  Did  God,  in  a  phrase  lately  controverted,  take 
"  an  inferior  man  "  for  his  instrument?  This  is  su 
preme  manhood.  Pick  a  flaw,  who  will,  in  the  dia 
mond,  to  which  those  are  dirt  that  have  just  been 
discovered  in  South  Africa  ;  find,  if  you  can,  cloud  or 
stain  in  the  pearl  from  the  hand  of  the  great  Lapidary 
as  he  makes  up  his  jewels.  But  this  is  indeed  Milton's 
"  human  face  divine."  It  is  to  reach  the  zenith,  and 
touch  the  horizon  of  our  utmost  conception. 

Do  I   tempt   to  a  more   refined   idolatry?     Not  in 


CHARACTER.  303 

denoting  a  virtue  whose  beauty  is  a  bond.  It  were  a 
stride  for  a  self-worshipper  to  adore  such  a  character, 
or  even  an  image,  a  bit  of  painted  cloth,  flag,  or  em 
blem  ;  any  thing  but  the  gaudy  butterfly  or  golden  calf 
he  is  !  When  one  expostulated  with  Mr.  Thackeray 
for  making  young  people  talk  so  silly  in  his  books,  he 
said,  "  Nonsense  !  you  can't  make  them  talk  half  silly 
enough  !  "  But,  O  flatterer  of  the  Lord  !  Jesus  is  too 
busy  for  your  adulation.  He  does  not  wait  to  smell 
this  everlasting  smoke  of  your  incense.  Do  not  keep 
me,  he  says :  and  I  must  not  detain  you.  My  busi 
ness  is  to  forward  these  goods  I  am  trusted  with. 
Have  I  introduced  you  to  God?  Let  me  stand  aside. 
Engage  in  and  enjoy  the  conversation. 

With  that  sublime  soul,  to  put  one's  end  above  one's 
self,  then,  is  the  method  of  character.  Do  your  work, 
and  divert  attention  from  your  hand  in  it.  The  fine 
actor  is  lost  in  the  personage  he  represents,  the  orator 
in  the  theme  of  his  discourse,  the  singer  in  the  melody 
he  chants,  the  poet  in  the  verse  he  writes,  and  every 
artist,  builder,  agent,  in  the  business  Heaven  sends 
him  on.  What  does  Michel  Angelo  know  of  bend 
ing  his  neck  out  of  joint,  painting  the  ceiling  of  the 
Sistine  Chapel?  What  does  John  the  Baptist  resolve 
himself  into  but  a  voice  in  the  wilderness?  So  Gar 
rison  did  in  the  land  slavery  was  making  a  worse 
desert.  Why  did  John  Brown  think  the  sovereign 
State  of  Virginia  and  whole  South  no  disproportionate 
antagonist,  but  that  his  cause  was  more  than  Union  or 
nation?  The  best  work  everywhere  is  that  of  those 
absorbed  in  it,  —  like  the  silk-worm  in  the  cocoon  it 
weaves  for  its  shroud  ;  the  bee  lost  in  the  heart  of  the 


304  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

flower  it  sucks  ;  the  coral  insect,  continent-builder,  in 
the  rocky  reef.  Self-oblivion  is  God's  remembrance. 
The  glass  of  admiring  eyes  is  a  fragile  preserver. 
Service  of  God  in  your  kind  is  a  safe  which  the  last 
fire  will  not  crumble.  That  is  a  Raphael,  we  say  of 
the  picture  on  the  wall.  Is  Raphael  in  it  at  full 
length?  No:  figures  of  others,  —  the  Holy  Family, 
angels  that  stoop,  or  cherubs  that  peep.  That  is 
Beethoven  !  It  is  an  orchestra,  playing  his  sympho 
nies,  till  his  bronze  fades  from  your  misty  eyes.  That 
is  Shakspeare.  Yes,  most  hid  when  most  revealed  ; 
less  apparent  in  the  self-referring  sonnets  than  in  the 
disinterested  plays:  all  the  dramatis  persons  but  the 
metes  of  his  personality,  a  dwarf  in  the  incidents  of 
his  biography,  a  seraph  that  soars  and  sings  in  his 
immortal  lines.  The  locomotive  is  splendid,  speeding 
on  its  track  ;  but  modestly  slipping  aside,  its  task  done, 
unseen,  to  let  its  living  load  roll  into  the  station,  has  a 
peculiar  charm.  In  all  Dr.  Channing's  writings  the 
sentence  that  always  moved  me  most  was  that  ending 
the  Preface  to  his  first  volume.  "  In  truth,  I  shall  see 
with  no  emotion  but  joy  these  fugitive  productions 
forgotten  and  lost  in  the  superior  brightness  of  writ 
ings  consecrated  to  the  work  of  awakening  in  the 
human  soul  a  consciousness  of  its  divine  and  immortal 
powers."  So  Jesus  says,  Not  me,  but  my  pur 
pose,  my  method,  my  direction,  my  affection  for  God 
and  man,  —  in  these  my  mission  is  fulfilled;  the  new 
Jerusalem  has  many  avenues  ;  arrive  at  your  station 
how  you  will ! 

But  has  not  his  character  another  side?     What  say 
of    his   conscious    exaltation  ?    his    singular   and    un- 


CHARACTER.  305 

paralleled  self-respect?  We  will  say  there  is  no  self- 
interest  !  It  is  all  instrumentality.  He  is  illustrator, 
and  his  word  illustration,  of  something  deeper.  He 
would  have  us  follow  him,  as  we  follow  a  demonstra 
tion  in  geometry  on  the  blackboard.  Is  it  for  the 
demonstrator's  sake,  or  the  truth's  sake  ?  It  is  what 
we  follow  to :  as  we  follow  a  guide  up  the  Alps  or 
into  the  Adirondacks ;  as  we  prospect  for  gold  mines 
in  California,  —  not  for  the  guide,  but  for  the  view  or 
the  treasure  ;  as  the  Spaniards  followed  Cortez  when 
he  drew  with  his  sword  in  the  Mexican  sands  a  line  for 
the  brave  part  of  his  army  to  cross,  and  cowards  to  go 
back.  Such  the  only  following  Jesus  asks,  not  to  his 
honor,  but  the  common  weal.  Follow  him?  We 
follow  that  in  him  which  says,  Touch  me  not, — 
and,  like  those  men  of  Galilee,  gazing  up  after  him 
into  heaven,  find  ourselves  in  the  infinite  unseen, 
with  him  somehow  still.  Well  for  the  simple  and 
unlearned  then  or  now  to  follow  him  ;  but,  when  you 
follow  truth  and  God,  the  personal  following  of  him 
may  cease.  To  those  who  knew  not  what  to  follow, 
he  gave  the  command.  "  Have  you  experienced  relig 
ion?"  an  unlettered  woman  of  eighty  was  asked  by  the 
priest  who  would  make  a  proselyte.  "  Yes,  so  far  as 
I  have  practised  it,"  was  the  reply.  Such  Jesus  would 
have,  not  for  followers,  but  peers ;  not  servants,  but 
friends. 

But  self-forgetfulness  is  not  self-support.  Jesus 
speaks  of  his  glory  he  had  before  the  world  was. 
Is  it  not  what  we  call  the  Ideal?  He  had  an  elevator. 
As  the  stream  runs  into  your  house  from  a  head  of 
water,  as  the  wheat  yonder  at  the  Western  Railway 


306  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

without  stint  flows  down  from  a  building  raised 
high  in  air,  so  from  what  fathomless  fund  and  store 
house  of  thought  his  disinterestedness  was  drawn ! 
Why  speculate  so  much?  says  the  practical  man. 
Why  not  go  and  do  something,  like  the  missionaries? 
But,  after  the  missionaries  have  sailed  a  thousand 
leagues  and  sacrificed  themselves  with  homesickness, 
exposure,  and  hard  fare,  what  is  it  for  the  Sandwich 
Islanders,  and  heathen  in  Hindostan,  they  do,  but 
proclaim  certain  views?  The  views,  then,  are  of  some 
importance:  what  is  every  act  but  the  offspring  of  a 
sentiment?  To  the  critic,  wondering  we  should  beat 
and  puzzle  our  brains  over  the  problems  of  the  uni 
verse,  we  say,  For  every  particle  of  pure  truth,  caught 
in  pure  vision  or  assayed  from  the  crude  ore  of  ac 
cepted  creeds,  our  meeting  or  meditation  is  not  in 
vain,  more  than  the  enterprise  of  diggers  in  the 
California  mines.  My  friend  admitted  the  correctness 
of  my  essay,  but  justified  the  current  opinion  on  the 
ground  of  the  necessity  of  some  alloy  to  prevent  wear 
and  make  the  truth  pass.  But  alloy  we  can  pick  up 
plenty  in  the  street.  How  if  the  supply  of  virgin  gold 
fail?  Why  has  the  world  not  drained  the  Jewish 
Master  dry,  and  spent  long  ago  the  last  farthing  of 
the  Christian  faith,  but  because  of  the  immense  Bank 
he  leaned  on,  that  honored  his  drafts?  O  my  busy 
brother,  God  speed  your  benevolent  plans !  But,  to 
get  along,  we  must  have,  not  only  the  rolling  stock, 
rails  and  driving  wheels  of  some  association  or  church 
order,  but  the  locomotive  power ;  and  he  that  gives 
us  only  more  and  better  vapor,  —  call  it  mere  breath 
if  you  will,  steam  from  human  lips,  —  is  in  place,  and 


CHARACTER.  307 

his  word  as  good  as  any  deed  !  Has  not  what  Jesus 
said,  more  than  what  he  did,  insured  his  longevity? 
What  he  said  was  no  cut  and  dried  scheme.  He  made 
it  up,  or  it  made  itself,  as  he  went  along  waiting  upon 
God,  holding  Nature  in  solution  in  his  mind,  and 
putting  character  into  every  tone.  In  the  conven 
tional  notion  he  is  nothing  but  a  Preceptor  to  his 
pupils,  with  the  downward  look.  But  what  were 
his  downward  look  without  his  upward  one?  He 
united  his  vision  with  sincerity,  and  was  not  double 
to  different  men,  like  those  esoteric  and  exoteric  clocks, 
on  the  outside  and  inside  of  railway  stations,  that 
never  agree.  He  grew,  says  Luke :  did  he  ever  get 
his  growth  ?  That  were  the  end  of  him  ;  stoppage 
of  soul  or  body  is  certain  death.  Call  the  sexton, 
then,  to  make  a  grave  for  both !  Do  you  not  deny 
for  him  the  very  immortality  Paul  says  he  brought 
to  light,  when  you  disown  his  progress,  and  say  he 
had  exhausted  God,  though  having  all  of  him  his 
flesh  could  contain?  Full  of  the  element  he  floated 
in,  how  his  capacity  enlarged  !  Treading  the  line  of 
beauty,  where  did  his  feet  find  the  end,  or  what  proof 
is  there  it  was  enough  for  him  to  tread  it  for  us,  and 
not  we  for  ourselves?  I  should  as  soon  think  of  the 
iron  filings  drawn  to  a  magnet,  or  bits  of  down  to 
an  electric  jar,  emptying  the  fluid  that  pervades  the 
world,  as  of  his  or  any  sayings  or  doings  expressing 
the  whole  creation's  life,  or  Creator's  peace  and  joy, 
to  illustrate  not  substantiate  which  he  came  and 
taught.  His  was  the  Ideal  method ;  but  are  we 
bound  to  his  Ideal,  could  we  exactly  find  it  out? 
No,  but  to  our  own.  There  is  justly  no  more  than 


308  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

one.  It  belongs  not  to  him,  but  to  all,  availed  of  in 
whatever  diverse  degree.  For  a  ship,  to  be  of  the 
fleet,  need  not  take  the  same  way  to  the  same  port 
or  fight,  in  an  exact  mathematical  line  after  the  flag 
ship.  We  are  in  Christ's  convoy  so  far  as  we  sym 
pathize  in  his  style.  His  style  in  character,  as  well  as 
in  chronology,  affects  us  still. 

Do  not  imitate  him,  we  are  told  :  deal  at  first  hand 
with  God.  But  God  is  no  abstraction.  We  are  part 
of  him,  and  Jesus  is  part,  in  proportion  to  his  worth. 
The  society,  State,  church,  household  we  live  in,  as 
well  as  stars  that  shine  over  us,  are  members  of  Deity, 
some  hand  or  finger  of  God  ;  and  by  the  laws  of  life 
we  reach  him  over  every  causeway  that  is  portion  of 
himself.  "  I  put  myself,"  says  our  friend,  "  squarely 
outside  of  Christianity."  That,  were  it  psychologi 
cally  possible,  were  to  be  so  far  outside  of  God.  We 
have  a  horror  of  examples  ;  but  the  worst  one  is  that 
which  we  often  in  our  prejudice  set  ourselves.  We 
are  inside  of  all  human  life.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  come-outer.  Everybody,  as  one  said  of  himself, 
is  a  stay-inner,  and  Christian  in  some  sense.  As  the 
eye  searches  in  the  sky  for  the  Pointers  to  find  the 
North  Star,  so  we  see  his  traits  in  line  with  that 
pole  of  truth  we  too  must  steer  by.  However  clouded, 
is  it  not  in  our  firmament  as  big  and  steady  as  in  his? 

"  But  an  Ideal  greater  than  he  is,  which  we  make 
for  ourselves  !  "  exclaimed  a  good  doctor  of  divinity,  in 
surprise.  No,  we  never  made  it,  more  than  we  did 
Orion  or  the  Pleiads.  God  makes  it ;  he  is  it !  Purely 
individual  we  cannot  be.  In  every  man  is  the  Ideal, 
greater  than  any  man  and  all  men,  or  Jesus  himself. 


CHARACTER.  309 

Such  an  Ideal  had  not  Washington  and  Lincoln  of 
a  patriotism,  which  no  details  of  service  could  expend, 
to  make  their  names  splendid  myths  of  love  of  country 
when  all  the  incidents  and  anecdotes  shall  be  forgot? 
It  is  no  accident.  The  human  heart  makes  no  mis 
take,  more  than  God.  The  selfish,  blustering,  bellig 
erent  demagogue  of  the  hour,  with  whom  God  seems 
not  to  exist  when  he  mentions  him,  can  reach  no  such 
fame.  Of  all  excellence  this  Ideal  property  is  the 
span,  the  last  touch  and  first  breath.  There  is  noth 
ing  so  small  or  low  it  does  not  bend  to,  or  bend  to 
itself.  Which  is  the  best  picture,  —  that  eked  out 
every  inch,  as  you  have  seen  a  cataract,  mountain, 
iceberg,  with  a  painstaking  Chinese  brush  ;  or  that 
conceived,  swept  and  played  upon  with  some  hu 
manizing  design,  finding  in  form  and  color  but  its 
language  and  silent  tongue?  William  Hunt  never 
took  his  brush  but  with  such  intent.  Which  is  the 
best  orchestra,  —  that  which  renders  every  piece  like 
a  great  music-box,  or  that  which  turns  pipe  and  string 
to  such  expression  as  to  bear  you  like  a  wind  to  some 
heavenly  shore?  "It  is  too  much  sail  to  carry,"  said 
one  at  a  pathetic  performance.  "  It  means,"  replied 
another,  "  you  shall  carry  sail  somewhere  else."  Who 
is  the  best  speaker,  —  he  that  grinds  or  saws  out  with 
set  teeth  his  sentences,  or  he  that  transpires  what  he 
is  inspired  with?  Who  accomplishes  most  anywise,  — 
he  that  goes  doggedly  to  work,  as  the  Esquimaux  make 
their  dogs  draw  their  sleds  over  ice  and  snow,  or  he 
that  opens  his  faculties  to  be  blown  upon  from  above 
and  plants  them  in  the  river  of  God,  —  as  the  miller 
makes  breeze  and  water-fall  turn  his  vans  and  wheels 
to  more  account  than  by  any  crank  under  his  hands? 


3IO  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

This  vision  is  not  for  show,  like  gilt  pipes  on  the 
old  organs.  In  nothing  is  such  use.  The  Indian  had 
it  when  he  praised  a  United  States  President,  and 
pronounced  him  polite,  for  turning  his  back  so  as  not 
to  see  how  much  his  guest  ate  or  drank.  So  in  our 
war  had  the  wounded  soldier,  with  a  bleeding  mouth 
and  burning  thirst,  refusing  the  officer's  canteen  lest 
with  his  blood  he  should  hurt  it  for  the  other  men. 
When  Putnam,  going  to  the  Potomac,  said,  "  Mother, 
it  is  easy  to  give  life,  terrible  to  take  it,"  he  bore 
the  glory  of  Christ's  lowly  boast  under  his  lieutenant's 
belt.  The  man  had  it  who  took  me  up  on  the  windy 
road,  and  apologized  for  the  little  room  in  his  chaise. 
Our  friend  had  it  when  he  said,  not  "  go  but  come  to 
the  war."  The  Pilgrims  had  it  when  those  staying 
behind  wondered  what  such  fools  were  thinking  of; 
and  they  made  us  color-bearers  of  their  idea,  alive 
not  to  drop  what  will  glorify  us  when  we  die.  The 
savages  in  Central  Africa,  says  a  late  traveller,  still 
prick  the  image  of  the  cross  into  their  own  skins,  and 
weave  it  into  their  saddles.  Do  we  not  learn  from  our 
Fathers  to  abjure  showy  emblems  for  humane  suffer 
ings  and  deeds? 

Action  from  spiritual  perception,  to  form  character, 
must  complete  the  proof.  When  the  English  collier, 
in  his  bucket  with  the  broken  rope,  cries,  "  From  un 
der  I"  to  those  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft;  when  the 
French  soldier  begs  the  surgeon  to  keep  his  ether  for 
those  worse  wounded,  and  stuffs  his  bloody  handker 
chief  into  his  mouth  to  bear  without  noise  the  unrelieved 
knife  ;  when  the  fallen  dying  acrobat  sings  out,  "  Look 
after  those  girls  on  the  trapeze  ; "  when  the  conductor 


CHARACTER.  3!  I 

runs  forward  on  the  track  to  save  a  little  child,  and 
clears  the  stroke  of  the  engine  by  a  single  foot ;  when 
the  engineer  sticks  to  his  locomotive  rushing  to  ruin 
like  Cooper's  boatswain  going  down  with  the  Ariel, — 
of  something  more  than  mortal  there  is  proof.  Can  you 
renounce  the  life  you  desire,  turn  your  back  on  the 
heaven  you  conceive,  —  willing,  as  said  Dr.  Hopkins, 
to  be  damned  for  the  glory  of  God,  or  like  Paul  to  be 
a  cast-away,  accursed  for  your  kind?  Do  you  consent 
to  be  annihilated  if  that  be  best?  You  have  what 
you  give  up !  Relinquishment  is  possession,  and 
death  your  mortgage  on  life.  "  I  refuse  not  to  die," 
said  Paul  to  Festus.  How  kill  what  said  that? 

It  is  I,  but  not  mine  ;  it  is  you,  but  not  yours.  God 
can  take  care  of  his  property  !  Calvin's  God  is  Saturn 
over  again  devouring  his  own  children.  Love  is  ex 
ecutor  of  Law.  These  two  have  no  mediator  but 
whatever  as  momentary  priest  puts  them  in  imme 
diate  relation,  to  pronounce  them  one.  A  Boston 
minister  says,  "  What  weight  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  from  the  authority  of  Him  that  said  it !  "  Indeed, 
is  the  sermon  true  because  he  said  it ;  or  did  he  say  it 
because  it  was  true?  Does  authority  or  inspiration 
make  truth  ;  or  does  truth  make  authority  and  inspira 
tion?  "The  mistake  is,"  says  the  same  minister,  "to 
set  truth  before  Christ."  Then  he  made  that  mistake  ; 
for  he  set  the  truth  he  was  but  part  of  before  himself. 
The  worst  sign  of  the  times  is  this  putting  of  what 
Webster,  replying  to  Hayne,  calls  "  mutual  quota 
tion  and  commendation,"  in  place  of  free  inquiry,  in 
our  religious  press. 

"Touch  me  not!"     We  cannot  touch  him  till  we 


312  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

are  transparent  with  goodness  like  him.  Our  Lord? 
He  is  the  beggar  whom  the  seeker  of  the  Holy  Grail 
shares  his  crust  with,  be  he  German  or  French ;  as 
he  was  the  child  Christopher  bore  over  the  stream. 
When  one  proposed  in  convention  to  resolve  Chris 
tianity  into  love  to  God  and  man,  it  was  objected,  this 
is  the  end  to  which  Christianity  is  the  means.  But 
as  we  learn  to  vote  by  voting,  walk  by  walking,  and 
to  swim  by  swimming ;  as  in  the  race  or  regatta  the 
starting-point  is  to  the  rounding  boat  also  the  goal,  — 
so  I  know  no  way  to  love  God  and  man  but  by  loving 
them. 

We  object  to  calling  Christ  a  man,  as  if  to  be  such 
were  mean :  "  A  poor  thing,"  said  the  poet  Daniels, 
"  unless  above  himself  he  can  erect  himself."  Christ's 
character  is  a  flower  human  nature  could  not  bloom 
into,  and  a  fruit  that  never  grew  on  the  family  tree ! 
Which  does  this  doctrine  decry,  mankind  or  its  au 
thor?  Have  we  ascertained  the  capacity  of  the  soul, 
as  we  measure  the  cubic  contents  of  a  ship  or  pun 
cheon?  Do  we  know  what  is  coming  out  of  it  before 
the  time?  Who  predicted  Homer,  Shakespeare, 
Raphael !  We  are  told  of  ghosts  so  substantial  as  to 
have  their  photographs  taken ;  but  no  portraits  of 
such  as  have  never  existed  or  been  embodied.  Those 
who  maintain  that  Jesus,  without  human  father,  was 
begotten  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  do  not  deny  he  had  all 
the  parts  and  properties  of  a  man.  Had  any  organ, 
faculty,  affection,  been  wanting,  he  would  have  been 
a  monster,  and  every  moment  of  his  life,  each  breath 
he  drew,  a  new  miracle.  Had  he  shown  any  virtue 
beyond  others'  reach  to  practise,  it  would  equally  defy 


CHARACTER.  313 

their  ability  to  admire  or  understand.  Your  praise  is 
your  potential  possession  of  any  excellence,  in  intellect 
or  morals,  in  science  or  art,  music,  painting,  poetry, 
or  eloquent  speech.  Were  it  not  latent  in  us  as  a 
susceptibility  which  culture  might  unfold  into  accom 
plishment,  we  could  not  have  the  glow  of  one  heart 
beat  of  delight  in  it.  We  could  not  shout  at  the 
oration,  clap  in  the  concert-room,  or  say  Amen  to  the 
prayer.  Do  I  know  what  it  was  for  Jesus  to  hang  on 
the  cross,  or  drop  the  bloody  sweat  in  the  garden? 
Then  I  could  have  agonized  and  hung  there.  The 
stupid  crowd  that  throw  up  their  caps  with  one  gen 
uine  throb  of  gratitude  or  cordial  cheer  of  applause, 
as  the  hero  or  deliverer  passes  by,  could  every  one  have 
dared  or  suffered  as  much  as  Grant  at  Richmond,  or 
Washington  at  Valley  Forge.  Did  twenty  millions 
of  men  compose  the  funeral  procession  when  Lin 
coln's  body  was  borne  across  the  States  to  the  tomb? 
Every  sincere  mourner  had  in  him  the  germ  of  the 
great  President's  martyrdom.  Not  a  trait  of  the  mas 
ter  but  is  a  copy  of  the  disciple's  latent  worth.  Noth 
ing  actual  in  Jesus  that  is  not  possible  in  you  and  in 
the  feeblest  babe  in  the  crib. 

It  is  not  only  incorrect,  but  injurious,  to  shut  off 
from  the  common  soul  any  merit,  or  say  it  can  only 
be  imputed  or  imparted,  never  indigenous  ;  as  if  good 
ness  were  not  native  to  the  mind,  but  only  immigrant 
or  an  import.  Superhuman  is  it?  Then  certainly  I 
shall  not  try  for  it !  Why  should  a  man  strain  after 
something  beyond  his  manhood?  "Stop!  STOP!" 
cried  a  lad  with  his  carpet-bag  to  a  railway  train 
gliding  from  the  station.  I  might  as  well  try  to  arrest 


314  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

qualities  I  cannot  emulate,  "  What  is  the  use  of  his 
running?"  said  a  fellow-passenger  to  me  of  a  person 
who  expected  to  overtake  the  cars  getting  full  under 
way.  We  do  not  want  an  unattainable  standard  held 
up  before  us.  It  would  be  insult  to  our  will,  mockery 
of  our  weakness,  discouragement  of  our  hope.  Arch- 
angelic  displays,  by  a  being  different  in  kind  from  us, 
would  but  tantalize  and  torment. 

But  I  challenge  this  peculiar  superiority  of  tradi 
tional  and  historic  virtue.  The  preacher  describes 
the  transcendent  truth,  love,  meekness,  conscience, 
self-sacrifice,  and  says  it  is  no  use  to  attempt :  you 
cannot  be  as  good  as  that.  It  can  be  passed  over  to 
your  credit  if  you  believe  in  the  atonement ;  but  can 
not,  save  by  favor  of  the  pleading  and  dying  Advocate, 
be  really  your  own.  Every  honest  drop  of  blood 
resents  this  fiction  of  the  court,  which  theologians 
fancy  for  their  forensic  God,  and  tingles  with  the 
assertion  that  it  too  can  flow  with  sincerity  or  flow 
out  an  offering  to  any  worthy  cause ;  as  it  did  ten 
years  ago,  to  drench  the  land  it  saved,  —  not  boastful 
blood,  though  claiming  the  right  to  give  itself,  and 
running  so  freely !  What  strikes  us  in  these  empty- 
sleeved,  scarred  men,  is  their  making  so  little  of  what 
they  did  or  endured  in  their  wilderness  on  the  Poto 
mac,  or  Gethsemane  of  the  Mississippi ;  their  silence, 
abstinence  from  profession,  having  to  be  drawn  out  to 
speak  of  the  scenes  they  passed  through,  and  using  the 
lowest  terms  in  their  description,  the  farthest  from 
travellers'  tales,  and  regarding  all  as  within  the  line  of 
simple  duty.  What  sin  mixed  with  their  holocaust? 
Always  so  in  tasks  and  trials  that  are  sublime. 


CHARACTER.  315 

I  do  not  disparage  past  example,  or  dishonor  the 
holy  biography,  in  saying  it  is  matched  by  present 
worth.  Why  do  I  declare  what  I  have  sometimes 
the  privilege  to  see,  in  living  and  dying  men  and 
women,  is  equal  to  any  sacred  tale?  Because  I  can 
conceive  nothing  better  than  I  behold.  A  woman, 
listening  many  years  ago  to  a  famous  sermon,  said, 
"  That  is  as  good  as  Christ."  "  Oh  no !  rather  good 
as  anti-Christ,"  said  her  friend.  But  what  is  indeed 
Christian  is  as  good  as  Christ ;  for  it  is  the  same  thing 
of  divine  inspiration.  He  would  have  said  he  was 
not  a  Christian  himself!  If  you  question  the  supreme 
worth  of  that  patience,  resignation,  fearless  departure, 
or  self-consuming  devotion,  which  you  witness  to-day, 
you  confound  with  doubt  the  very  glory  and  identical 
element  in  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  To  be  shocked 
at  its  appearance  in  or  ascription  to  another,  is  to  suspect 
it  in  him,  and  disbelieve  it  altogether.  It  is  infidelity  ! 
Was  the  light,  air,  water,  in  Judasa  better  than  ours? 
Had  love,  truth,  purity,  superior  preciousness  then? 
Wonderful,  Jesus  forgave  his  foes  !  Cannot  you  ?  If 
I  feel  I  cannot  afford  to  have  an  enemy,  if  strife  is  no 
luxury  to  me,  if  I  must  love  and  help  my  adversary, 
why  tell  me  to  find  a  better  disposition  in  Canaan 
two  thousand  years  ago  ?  The  earth  may  be  between 
me  and  Jesus  ;  I  tread  the  ashes  of  fifty  generations 
fallen  on  his  grave  ;  but  there  is  no  thought  betwixt 
us,  no  misunderstanding ;  the  ideas  are  common  ;  we 
occupy  the  same  celestial  globe. 

But  do  you  not  make  a  mere  man  of  him?  Not 
at  all ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  mere  man !  I 
never  knew  one  any  way  or  where.  Tou  are  not 


316  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

a  mere  man,  but  fashioned  in  the  Maker's  image. 
If  species  are  diverse,  none  absolutely  distinct;  all 
kinds  in  God's  creation  run  into  each  other  without 
boundary  or  bar.  Mere  man?  There  is  no  mere 
animal,  without  something  human.  There  is  no  mere 
vegetable.  The  sponge  drinks,  the  fly-catcher  is  a 
flower  that  catches  insects,  the  orchids  grotesquely 
mimic  our  fancies,  the  sensitive  plant  has  nerves. 
There  is  no  mere  mineral.  The  rock  is  not  solid  nor 
at  rest,  but  appears  a  whirl  of  atoms  ready  for  trans 
formation  into  regularity  of  higher  rhythm  which  is 
life.  The  rock  in  me  is  resolution :  I  got  my  will 
out  of  the  cliffs  that  overhung  my  father's  house. 
God  is  my  Rock,  higher  than  I.  Your  companion 
deceased,  you  see  in  heaven.  Was  he  a  mere  man 
on  earth?  Then  how  did  he  get  up  there,  without 
ladder  or  wings,  or  Tower  of  Babel,  to  climb  by? 
My  dear  friend  Ephraim  Peabody  appeared  to  me 
in  a  dream  at  the  top  of  a  hill  lofty  and  steep  as  that 
peculiar  one  I  clambered  up  two  thousand  feet  at 
Dixville  Notch  ;  and  he  said,  "  Come  up."  "  I  can 
not  !  "  "  Yes,  you  can  ;  "  and,  buoyed  by  some  strange 
force  that  seized  me,  I  rose  to  him  as  in  a  balloon. 
But  our  rising  to  the  seraph  is  no  airy  ascent.  It  is 
getting  out  of  one  sort  of  nature,  the  human,  into 
another  sort,  the  seraphic.  It  is  not  travelling,  going 
so  many  miles  into  space  ;  but  transmutation,  impos 
sible  if  we  were  mere  men.  You  say  of  your  dear 
partner,  She  is  an  angel.  You  see  half-open  the 
spiritual  pinions  she  will  soar  on.  In  every  hour  of 
aspiration,  we  are  conscious  of  forces  not  yet  in  use, 
ready  to  uplift. 


CHARACTER.  317 

So  when  you  talk  of  the  simple  humanity  of  Jesus, 
my  Unitarian  brother  or  Humanitarian  believer,  I 
must  tell  you,  You  cannot  part  man  from  God,  and 
keep  the  man.  He  would  bleed  to  death  ;  his  man 
hood  would  perish.  Jesus  is  of  no  other  order  nor 
a  class  all  by  himself,  but  the  supreme  instance  thus 
far,  in  the  verdict  of  history,  of  this  common  life  with 
Deity. 

But,  if  we  classify  him  with  all  the  rest,  where  is  his 
honor,  and  what  accounts  for  his  place,  pre-eminence, 
and  unrivalled  influence?  I  answer,  The  idea  he 
stands  for,  of  the  Divine  Humanity.  This  is  the  signal 
he  hoists.  No  signal-tender  on  the  long  road  of  our 
race  ever  lifted  one  so  high.  Before  him  God  was 
outside,  in  the  sky,  among  the  elements,  on  a  throne. 
He  was  the  Thunderer  at  Sinai,  the  Dropper  of  manna 
in  the  desert,  the  Divider  of  the  Red  Sea.  Men  did 
not  dare  to  bring  him  down  and  domesticate  him  in 
their  own  breasts.  He  was  in  some  pew,  easier  to 
get  at  in  Jerusalem  or  Gerizim,  till  Jesus  showed  him 
universal  Spirit,  whom  neither  Jew  nor  Samaritan 
could  own,  but  every  gentile  and  barbarian  shared. 
He  delivered  God  from  keepers,  and  made  the  connec 
tion  of  trains  we  are  all  passengers  in.  He  is  God- 
man  ;  and  I  hold  it  as  unjust  as  ungrateful  to  dispute 
this  claim.  It  is  no  individual  assumption.  He  is 
our  conductor  ;  but  will  not  follow  us  round  the  streets 
after  we  arrive  !  He  is  the  representative  man.  He 
no  more  wishes  to  have  dignity  to  himself  than  mo 
nopolize  bread  or  heaven.  "  A  white  man's  govern 
ment !"  said  Frederic  Douglass;  "as  well  talk  of  a 
white  man's  sun  or  moon  !  "  Sonship  of  Christ  alone 


318  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

with  God  were  a  worse  exclusiveness.     In  whatever 
he  said  of  himself,  he  published  the  common  privilege. 
Son  of  God  was  he  as  well  as  Son  of  man?     Who  is 
not?     There  are  no  two  natures  :  the  human  is  divine. 

But  the  Word  became  flesh  !  In  that  single  instance 
wholly  and  only?  Is  the  Divinity  an  absentee  from 
your  frame?  Is  Satan  inmate  of  your  flesh,  and  every 
ill  demon  a  birthright  tenant  of  your  babe?  Then, 
O  Orthodox  brother !  if  anybody  is  totally  depraved, 
it  is  you  in  having  the  babe.  You  have  no  business 
with  it !  Wedlock  is  sin,  the  marriage  vow  is  blas 
phemy,  love  is  shame,  the  infant  you  hail  the  advent 
of  is  your  dumb  accuser,  and  the  nest  of  the  cocka 
trice  or  serpent's  den  is  a  harmless  thing,  to  be  spared 
till  you  have  broken  up  your  cradle.  Else  we  are  all 
partakers  of  the  incarnation.  Something  of  the  reason 
of  the  All-wise,  love  of  the  All-good,  sanctity  of  the  All- 
pure,  is  embodied  as  inspired  in  us  and  our  offspring. 

But  he  is  the  Mediator  between  God  and  man  !  Yet 
he  was  a  man.  So  this  is  a  function  not  confined  to 
any,  but  belonging  in  some  measure  to  every  man. 
The  mediation  between  God  and  man  goes  on  in 
every  bosom.  In  the  electrical  toy,  called  Dives  and 
Lazarus,  a  pendulum  plays  betwixt  the  full  and  empty 
jar,  and  the  fluid  passes  all  the  time.  What  is  that 
agent  you  are  all  acquainted  with,  ever  going  to  and 
fro  between  the  Divinity  and  the  humanity,  to  move 
and  check,  guide  and  warn,  cleanse  and  correct, 
remove  the  dry  rot  of  folly  and  vice,  build  and  rebuild 
of  the  sound  timber  of  righteousness  the  inner  fane  ? 
It  is  the  mediator  between  God  and  man  in  the  hu 
man  soul.  Everybody  that  knows  himself  knows  this 


CHARACTER.  319 

other  self,  —  third  party  or  person  of  the  inward 
Trinity,  day's  man  between  us  and  God,  operator 
whose  telegraph  cannot  be  bought  up  and  never  lies, 
ambassador  that  will  take  no  bribe,  plenipotentiary 
whose  business  is  not  to  dissolve  the  personality,  which 
it  makes  ever  more  divine.  This  incorruptible  GO- 
BETWEEN  reproves  my  coming  short,  will  not  let  me 
prevaricate,  has  a  lash  for  my  vice  sharper  than  the 
whip  of  scorpions,  and  imprisons  me  for  staining  my 
brother's  name  or  sister's  honor  in  a  dungeon  darker 
than  that  to  which  criminals  against  the  State  are  sent. 
There  are  those  who  can  distinguish  this  agent  in  them, 
as  they  discriminate  between  their  body  and  soul. 
They  feel  something  not  dependent  on  clay,  but  ade 
quate  to  finer  form  or  organization.  Such  as  reach  not, 
or  distrust,  this  spirituality,  Jesus  serves  as  the  ap 
parition  of  God,  a  visible  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  the 
secret  of  his  hold ;  the  millions  he  has  performed 
this  function  for,  and  will  still  for  whoever  finds  not 
that  heavenly  factor  he  calls  the  Comforter,  the  some 
thing  better  than  himself  he  promised.  To  be  his, 
and  sit  at  his  table,  is  to  partake  his  vision  of  God  and 
immortality.  Eating  and  drinking  a  little  bread  and 
wine  cannot  make  you  one  with  him,  unless  you  eat 
his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood,  fed  and  stimulated  with 
his  sense  of  eternal  life. 

This  is  the  question  of  the  world's  unbelieving  wis 
dom  :  Was  Jesus  aught  but  a  credulous  enthusiast,  in 
declaring  an  endless  career?  Show  just  where  the 
credulity  lies !  The  Christian  believes  man  is  not  an 
ephemeral  creature,  that  his  soul  is  older  than  and  will 
outlast  his  flesh  ;  and  you,  O  sceptic  !  believe  it  is  but 


32O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

a  transient  property  of  his  material  composition,  which 
his  birth  lighted,  and  to  which  Death  will  say,  "  Otit, 
brief  candle  !  "  You  believe  all  these  thoughts  and  hopes 
and  plans  and  feelings  can  but,  with  the  ashes  they 
crumble  into,  line  the  tomb  whose  marble  letters  will  be 
a  longer  decoration  ;  and,  after  the  funeral  procession 
and  the  sexton's  spade,  not  an  idea  or  sentiment,  that 
once  illumined  and  inflamed  the  mortal  shape,  shall 
dare  to  "  mutter  or  peep."  Once  dead,  you  think 
you  "  will  not  be  able  to  pick  yourself  up,"  and  there 
will  be  nobody  to  pick  you  out  of  the  dust.  Well, 
in  this  comparison  between  the  man  of  Nazareth  and 
yourself,  his  critic,  the  credulity  is  not  his  but  yours! 
You  bring  the  strain  on  faith.  You  are  believing  a 
great  deal,  what  is  unbelievable,  that  death  is  anni 
hilation,  extinction  of  love,  and  disappointment  of 
hope.  You  believe  that  God  deceives  the  expectations 
he  inspires,  breaks  his  word,  plays  false  with  his 
child,  and  is  a  person  wanting  veracity,  on  whom  we 
cannot  rely.  You  believe  the  claim  of  the  heart  on 
its  objects,  though  it  is  constituted  never  to  give  them 
up,  is  less  valid  than  that  to  a  farm  or  beach,  or  piece 
of  goods,  or  wild  land  in  Kansas  or  Oregon,  or  field 
or  mine  in  Australia  or  California.  That  is  a  claim; 
but  the  soul  has  none,  no  title.  There  is  no  deed 
drawn  up  for  it.  Its  talk  about  other  mansions  and 
plains  is  mere  pretence,  delusion,  impotent  attempt 
at  usurpation.  As  between  you  and  him  you  reject 
my  mind  is  made  up.  I  go  with  the  Galilean  !  My 
faith  compasses  more  with  him ;  but  it  would  be 
stretched  more  with  you.  When  report  came  of  a 
painless  operation  in  mesmeric  sleep,  a  doctor  said 


CHARACTER.  321 

be  would  swallow  no  such  camel  as  that.  "  Well," 
replied  the  surgeon,  "  in  believing  we  were  all  mis 
taken,  and  the  poor  sailor  here,  whose  limb  I  cut  off, 
is  a  false  witness,  you  take  down  a  dromedary,  a 
camel  with  two  humps,  with  perfect  ease." 

Is  the  joy  of  Christ's  faith  no  proof?  He  did  not 
argue  the  matter.  Much  argument  confounds  the 
instinct.  "  The  more  I  reason  about  it,"  said  one  to  me, 
"  the  less  I  believe."  The  silent  dropping  by  friends  of 
flowers  and  tears  together  on  the  coffin  hinted  imme 
diately  more  than  the  loud  voice  of  the  priest  pro 
claiming  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Surely  as  fell 
the  blossoms  and  the  holy  water  they  shook  from  their 
eyes  to  keep  them  alive  a  little  longer,  the  soul  had 
risen  to  Him  who  turns  all  blooming  into  the  language 
of  his  love  to  us,  as  of  ours  to  each  other.  He  can 
make  his  chariot  of  these  delicate  leaves  of  the  open 
ing  buds  as  well  as  of  the  mighty  clouds  that  go 
sounding  through  the  sky  with  their  rattling  wheels  ; 
and  of  the  same  soft  vehicle  that  takes  him  to  us  a 
vessel,  on  the  return  journey,  to  bear  us  back.  Mean 
time  we  weep.  But,  with  upward-looking  eye,  — 

"  The  tear,  that  to  the  earth  descends, 

Belongs  of  right  to  the  earth ; 
To  its  home  above  the  soul  ascends, 
Where  it  had  its  heavenly  birth." 

This  is  no  calculation  ;  it  is  testimony.  The  act  or 
word  that  sets  the  world  forward  is  always  inspired. 
Calculation  is  unbelief.  "  He  looks  like  a  fox,"  said 
one  of  the  portrait  of  a  man.  "  That  is  what  he  is," 
was  the  artist's  reply.  Luther's  Here  I  stand,  I  can 
not  otherwise,  shows  the  God-driven  man,  as  the 


322  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Spirit  drove  Jesus  into  the  wilderness.  Let  such 
a  man  have  credit,  whatever  he  says !  Let  him 
say  /  as  he  will :  it  is  no  egotism,  but  God  in  the 
world.  Avoid  the  personal  pronoun  as  the  self- 
seeker  may,  he  has  no  humility  nor  faith.  What  I 
think,  believe,  hope,  love,  and  sacrifice  my  lower  self 
to,  differs  from  what  I  covet,  lust  after,  indulge  in, 
am  proud  of,  sell  or  forswear  myself  for.  The  self- 
allusion  of  the  man  who  carries  a  mirror  of  vanity  to 
pulpit  or  platform,  to  look  at  himself  in  his  discourse, 
is  not  the  same  with  that  of  him  who  makes  it  the 
emphasis  of  truth  and  duty  and  the  presence  of  the 
Deity.  This  selfhood  was  Christ's  crown.  M. 
Renan  intimates  a  sentimental  relation  between  Jesus 
and  the  women.  But  his  repulse  of  the  one  with 
whom  he  was  on  the  most  tender  terms,  when  she 
rushed  to  salute  him,  saying,  "  Hands  off;  touch  me 
not ;  go  to  the  disciples,  and  worship  the  common 
Father,"  shows  a  deeper  secret  in  his  character  than 
the  French  biographer  found.  While  we  are  so  fond 
of  him  as  to  fall  short  of  his  centre,  we  continue  the 
offence  he  rebuked.  We  are  not  ivith  him  till  we 
have  gone  beyond. 


XIV. 

GENIUS:  FATHER  TAYLOR. 

IN  the  year  1833,  being  a  student  in  the  Divinity 
School  in  Cambridge,  and  learning  that  a  Bethel 
for  Seamen  was  to  be  dedicated  in  Boston,  withal 
catching  a  rumor  in  the  air  of  some  peculiar  gift  in 
the  preacher,  I  walked  in  to  North  Square.  As  soon 
as  I  entered  the  new  brick  building,  so  famous  as  a 
sailors'  harbor  to  all  the  world,  and  the  master  of 
ceremonies  appeared,  I  felt  he  was  such  a  one  as 
I  had  never  seen  before  in  the  shape  of  minister 
or  man.  It  was  no  decorous  individual  sitting  si 
lent  and  solemn  in  the  pulpit-corner  till  the  people 
were  all  assembled,  and  it  was  time  for  the  ser 
vices  to  begin ;  but  a  figure  of  restless  and  uncon- 
tainable  life,  which  no  box  of  a  pulpit  seemed  able  to 
hold.  The  chafing  in  such  close  quarters,  the  glance 
that  reached  every  point  and  seemed  to  fall  on  every 
body,  the  swift  step  from  side  to  side  of  the  desk,  the 
radiant  look,  the  voice  strong  and  mellow  as  thunder 
or  a  breaking  wave,  the  gesture  (whose  lively  expres 
sion  could  not  have  been  bettered  by  Kemble  or  Booth), 
with  which,  saying,  "My  pulpit  has  no  doors,"  he 
beckoned  up  such  as  couJ4  not  find  seats  below,  and 


324  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  white  heat  of  enthusiasm  which  seemed  no  excite 
ment,  but  a  normal  state,  —  proved  that  no  pompous 
ecclesiastic,  droning  parson,  or  strait-laced  bigot  was  to 
discourse  that  day  and  be  primate  and  bishop  of  that 
establishment.  Last  summer  I  was  again  in  the  same 
place.  The  human  form,  so  long  aflame  with  zeal 
at  its  busy  task,  lay  quiet  enough  at  last.  The  con 
trast  between  life  and  death  was  never  so  great.  My 
friend  had  fallen  into  the  sleep  to  which  the  sweetest 
slumber  known  before  is  uneasiness. 

This  new  hand  indeed  at  the  bellows,  forging  human 
welfare,  ought  not  to  vanish  without  some  memorial. 
In  all  praise  is  a  certain  disrespect;  yet  such  a  duty 
lies  in  the  desire  to  speak,  the  presumption  may  have 
pardon.  No  American  citizen,  lawyer,  scholar,  or 
statesman  made  an  impression  so  unique,  or  left  repu 
tation  more  solid.  Webster,  Clay,  Lincoln,  Calhoun, 
by  no  advantage  of  stormy  debate  or  political  promi 
nence,  printed  their  names  deeper  on  their  time  than 
this  Methodist,  whose  method  transcending  limits  of 
sect  was  all  his  own.  How  did  a  poor  clergyman, 
never  leaving  his  own  little  spot,  haunting  with  comfort 
and  rebuke  of  love  the  vilest  part  of  the  city,  —  beside 
his  boys,  as  were  those  on  every  quarter-deck  or  before 
the  mast,  —  draw  all  men  unto  him?  In  the  hall  of 
memory,  what  service  puts  his  spiritual  statue  for  ever 
in  its  own  niche?  Let  us  try  to  learn,  lest  without 
record  of  biography  or  autobiography  the  name  of 
Taylor  be  scarce  more  than  a  tradition. 

He  belonged  to  no  class.  He  was  not,  for  any 
system  of  theology  or  philosophy,  either  leader  or  led. 
He  will  be  identified  with  no  dogma  or  reform  other 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  325 

or  less  than  of  the  way  of  regarding  and  treating 
those  whom  he  served.  He  is  the  sailor's  representa 
tive.  Those  other  great  ones  were  landsmen.  HJ 
stands  for  the  sea.  He  is  the  great  delegate  from  the 
waves  to  the  congress  of  intellect.  In  thousands  of 
ships,  by  almost  millions  of  mariners,  to  whom  by 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  he  was  father  who  chris 
tened  their  babes,  his  fame  was  borne  to  every  port. 
The  sailor  says  he  has  been  where  the  United  States 
had  not  been  heard  of,  but  never  where  Father  Taylor 
had  not.  How  did  a  man,  —  no  discoverer  in  the 
kingdom  of  ideas,  no  martyr  of  principle,  nor  marshal 
of  opinion,  —  so  touch  the  common  mind?  The  an 
swer  is  that  word  about  whose  application  we  are 
always  in  quarrel  or  doubt,  — genius.  It  is  a  large 
word.  It  signifies  a  universal  quality.  It  is  an  office 
and  warrant  to  speak  to  or  act  on  people  of  every  sort, 
to  span  every  social  gulf,  and  bring  all  who  differ  or 
are  opposed  into  one  mind.  Such  was  his  gift.  As 
the  people  say,  he  was  a  gifted  man,  perhaps  the  only 
one  of  his  generation  among  us  to  whom  the  term 
genius  absolutely  belongs.  May  I  show  this  by  some 
enumeration  of  marks? 

First,  genius  possesses  a  man.  Others  have  been 
as  intuitive  as  he,  with  perceptions  as  clear  and  judg 
ment  more  harmonious,  holding  the  glass  steadier  to 
spiritual  things,  weighing  values  of  thought  more 
coolly,  analyzing  subjects  more  keenly  as  in  a  mental 
spectroscope,  detecting  correspondences  more  exactly 
with  the  wide-open  eye  of  imagination,  and  with 
more  masterly  combining  of  old  elements  into  new 
maxims  or  ideas.  But  who  has  been  with  the  truth 


326  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

so  taken  and  carried  away  ?  His  vision  was  passion. 
It  made  a  train  of  his  faculties.  His  insight  was  en 
actment.  It  was  said  of  one,  "  In  company  he  leaves 
the  scholar  behind  :  in  his  study  he  is  a  different  man." 
Taylor  never  left  nor  lost  himself,  nor  seemed  made 
up  of  parts  and  pieces.  He  moved  altogether  if  he 
moved  at  all.  His  casual  talk  was  better  than  any 
preparation ;  his  impromptu,  his  finest  performance. 
A  gown  would  have  "  wrapped  his  talent  in  a  napkin." 
He  put  on  no  dress  nor  garland.  He  was  as  inspired 
at  the  street-corner  as  addressing  a  throng.  There 
was  grandeur  in  his  trivial  converse,  and  humor  in  his 
grave  discourse.  He  provoked  laughter  in  the  con 
gregation,  and  wet  your  eyes  with  his  private  greet 
ing  ;  put  you  in  church  with  his  grace  at  table, 
made  an  April  day  of  smiles  and  tears  at  his  evening 
vestry,  or  overcame  you  with  solemnity  in  your  house, 
so  that  you  were  inclined  to  say  it  thundered,  or  an 
angel  spake  to  him.  One  said  he  was  like  a  cannon, 
better  on  the  Common  than  in  a  parlor.  But  in  your 
sitting-room  he  could  be  a  flute.  He  was  a  man-of- 
war,  or  tender  and  soft  as  a  maid.  In  accidental  en 
counters  he  melted  hard-faced  persons  with  his  pathosl 
or  surprised  the  despondent  into  good  cheer  with  con 
solations  effectual  because  before  undreamed.  In  all 
this  was  no  calculation.  As  the  Spiritualists  say,  he 
was  under  control.  He  was  an  Italian  improvisator 
in  America,  an  extemporaneous  speaker  condensed 
beyond  example,  with  combustion  and  no  dilution. 
In  many  a  wit  we  see  the  diamond  shining :  he  was 
the  diamond  burning.  "  Do  not  get  worn  out,"  a 
friend  said  to  him.  "  I  tear  out,"  was  his  reply.  He 


GENIUS:     FATHER     TAYLOR.  327 

served  some  strange  power,  having  its  way  with  him, 
and  which  he  could  not  resist.  The  spirit  of  this 
prophet  was  not  subject  to  the  prophet. 

After  possession  the  second  mark  of  genius  is  facil 
ity.  There  was  in  Taylor  infinite  ease.  His  display 
of  power  cost  him  no  more  effort  than  for  the  sea  to 
roll  or  the  wind  to  blow.  It  would  but  have  been 
hard  to  resist  his  influx  and  inspiration.  Never  aught 
violent  or  rough.  To  storm  or  scream  is  the  false 
note,  —  counterfeit  that  passes  current  with  many. 
When  a  speaker  raises  his  voice,  and  aggravates  to 
fury  his  manner,  we  say,  It  is  all  true,  and  I  agree 
with  you  ;  but  do  not  cave  in  my  head  !  Some  orators 
and  readers  collar  us  like  a  sheriff,  or  worry  us  like  a 
terrier-dog.  They  are  ruffians  with  our  minds.  But 
this  man's  persuasive  magnetism  drew  us  without  inter 
ference  of  our  will  or  his  own.  He  had  at  his  mercy 
alike  our  pocket  and  our  heart.  Yet  this  gracious 
respect  had  in  it  no  weak  gushing,  nor  the  smallest 
leak.  If  he  ever  boiled,  he  never  slopped  over ;  like 
George  Washington,  whose  temper  was  a  caldron,  if 
not  an  awkwardly  lifted  pail.  He  carried  no  looking-  \ 
glass  of  self-admiration  or  mutual  admiration.  His  ex 
travagance  was  elevation.  His  glowing  commendation 
of  the  men  and  women,  his  fellow-laborers,  was  like 
the  lustre  with  which  the  sun  flatters  the  mountain-tops. 
His  approach  was  no  defiance  or  assault ;  but  he 
always  accepted  a  challenge  with  courage  that  wras 
courtesy  in  the  duel  from  which  he  never  ran.  He 
was  nothing  if  not  spontaneous.  His  originality  was 
never  insolence,  like  that  of  Mr.  Brownson,  who  told 
his  audience  their  resentment  of  his  doctrine  proved 
its  truth. 


328  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  third  mark  of  genius  is  communication.  In 
Taylor  this  was  perfect.  "  Her  very  foot  speaks," 
says  Shakespeare.  But  in  most  persons  not  a  tithe  of 
the  frame  bears  witness.  His.  marvellous  suppleness 
of  fibre  and  organ  made  his  whole  body  a  tongue. 
When  the  ballet-girls  came  out  in  the  theatre  and 
commenced  their  astounding  pirouettes,  he,  sitting  on 
the  front  row,  turned  round  to  the  spectators  with  a 
look  that  diverted  the  house  from  the  spectacle  and 
outdid  all  the  mimicries  of  the  stage.  He  was  as 
ingrained  an  actor  as  Garrick  or  Kean.  He  did  not 
believe  in  preaching  from  notes  ;  and,  making  a  speech 
at  a  meeting  of  his  brethren,  he  took  oft'  a  clergyman 
confined  to  his  manuscript,  looking  from  his  page 
to  his  hearers,  gazing  one  wray  and  gesticulating  an 
other,  to  the  convulsive  laughter  of  the  victims  he 
scored.  I  remember  his  impersonating  a  dervish  in 
his  spinning  raptures,  so  that  to  see  that  Oriental 
character  one  had  no  need  to  travel.  There  was  in 
his  word  a  primitive  force  none  could  withstand. 
"  Move  a  little  :  accommodation  is  a  part  of  religion," 
he  said  to  some  who  took  up  too  much  room  in  a 
crowded  seat;  and,  as  though  his  request  were  a  favor, 
and  in  such  quaint  phrase  they  had  received  a  pres 
ent,  they  moved.  Every  subject  was  to  him  such  an 
object,  he  marvelled  at  our  philosophic  self-fingering. 
"  Height  of  the  sky  !  "  said  William  Blake  ;  "  non 
sense  !  see,  I  touch  it  with  my  stick."  Taylor's  thought 
touched  heaven.  At  eight  years  old  he  went  through 
all  the  motions  of  the  minister's  service,  not  stopping 
with  sermon  and  prayer.  He  must  also  have  funerals. 
But  how  get  the  bodies?  By  shying  stones  at  chick- 


GENIUS:     FATHER     TAYLOR.  329 

ens,  and  having  obsequies  over  their  remains.  When 
the  supply  foiled,  or  perhaps,  for  the  cruelty,  his  heart 
misgave  him,  the  little  resurrectionist  dug  up  the  bod 
ies  for  a  second  performance.  Mourners,  too,  were 
necessary  ;  and  that  office  he  required  the  negro  chil 
dren  on  the  place  to  fill.  If  words  would  not  move 
the  lazy  things,  he  whipped  them  into  the  traces  of  his 
machine  of  grief.  His  acting  was  no  illusion  or  trick, 
but  perfect  nature,  and  so  perfect  art.  He  could  not, 
like  Delsarte,  have  picked  out  the  muscle  to  express 
heaven  or  hell.  How  he  did  it  he  knew  not.  Great 
orators  have  studied  their  motions  in  a  glass.  But,  if 
he  ever  saw  his  own  face  for  a  moment,  he  must  have 
straightway  forgotten  what  manner  of  man  he  was. 
Never  was  a  less  self-conscious  countenance,  —  more 
ignorant  of  its  own  looks.  The  Cape-Ann  farmer 
said  Rufus  Choate  could  cant  his  countenance  so  as  to 
fetch  tears  out  of  you  in  two  minutes.  But  there  was 
no  canting  in  Taylor. 

Of  true  genius  sympathy  is  a  mark.  In  him  it  was 
raised  to  the  highest  power.  He  not  only  saw  into 
people,  but  out  of  them,  or  saw  as  they  did  from  their 
centre  ;  and  for  his  eye-glasses  put  on  their  eyes.  His 
word  grew  out  of  the  occasion  :  his  feeling  was  gener 
ated  on  the  spot.  His  thought  fell  like  an  aerolite, 
and  did  not  crystallize  like  a  gem.  Dr.  Channing  had 
views:  he  had  visions.  He  preached  as  the  birds 
sang.  He  could  not  help  it  or  help  himself.  Where 
he  stood  was  a  drama,  not  a  desk.  He  was  the  char 
acter  in  "Midsummer-Night's  Dream:"  it  mattered 
not  \vhat  part  he  took.  Riches  dropped  from  him  una 
wares,  like  pearls  from  Prince  Esterhazy's  dress.  His 


330  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

concern  was  wide  as  his  race.  Genius  is  love.  Was 
Byron  misanthrope  ?  So  far  no  poet.  Taylor  was  no 
cold  peak.  His  mountain  stood  on  fire.  His  was  a 
southern  heart  married  to  a  northern  brain.  He  went 
back  to  Virginia,  and  asked  to  see  Johnny,  the  little 
boy  he  had  played  with  at  school  fifty  years  before, 
and  they  brought  in  a  white-haired  old  man ;  and 
Taylor  came  home  and  represented  lad  and  gray- 
beard  with  his  marvellous  transformations,  needing 
no  stage-dress.  He  entered  into  every  nature ;  with 
the  Dutch  painter  could  have  become  a  sheep,  and 
seemed  only  a  larger  one  among  the  pigeons  that 
swarmed  round  him  in  his  back-yard  to  be  fed.  As 
he  walked  in  the  Public  Garden,  a  sparrow  flew 
startled  from  its  bush.  He  stretched  his  hand  after  it, 
saying,  "  I  will  not  squeeze  you."  For  a  moment  I 
thought  the  bird  might  come. 

In  his  illustration  of  genius,  liberality  was  a  mark. 
A  Methodist,  Methodism  was  not  his  gaol  or  goal. 
Like  the  Indian  on  the  prairie,  he  said  he  walked 
large.  He  knocked  at  every  door,  Orthodox,  Episco 
pal,  Romish,  Radical ;  and,  as  in  the  Arabian  Nights' 
tale,  every  door  opened.  He  had  the  freedom  of  the 
city.  Thirty  years  ago  he  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Transcendental  Club.  There  were  in  the  company,  as 
he  entered,  doubtful  looks !  He  was  asked  to  speak, 
and  began  in  his  chair  ;  but  soon  saying,  "  I  must  get 
up,"  he  rose,  rubbed  the  rumples  out  of  his  trowsers 
with  a  laugh,  and  pictured  our  climbing  like  spiders 
with  such  vivacity  that  when,  as  he  concluded,  another 
ventured  to  speak,  our  leader  said,  "  When  the  spirit 
has  orbed  itself  in  a  man,  there  is  nothing  more  to 


GENIUS:    FATHER  TAYLOR.  331 

offer."  Who  shall  come  after  the  king?  Pentecost 
was  repeated,  and  we  were  full  of  new  wine.  He  was 
not  humorous,  but  humor.  He  compared  polemics  to 
two  bands  of  turtles  he  had  seen  march  on  a  ship's 
deck,  stretching  out  their  necks  to  each  other,  till 
from  those  that  got  their  heads  uppermost  the  other 
party  beat  a  retreat.  The  turtles  would  have  been 
content  with  their  representative.  To  some  Liberals, 
denouncing  the  notion  of  hell-fire,  he  lifted  thumb  and 
finger  to  his  nostrils,  and  said,  "  We  all  have  a  senti 
mentality  of  that  sulphur."  No  close  communion  for 
him  !  He  appraised  others  beyond  their  merits.  His 
liberality  was  worth  something,  making  him  read)7  to 
do  battle  with  intolerance.  In  his  large  toleration  he 
was  a  Radical,  in  his  own  order  born  before  the  time. 
"  Are  you  cheating  the  Unitarians,  or  are  the  Unita 
rians  cheating  you?"  asked  Dr.  Beecher.  "Doctor, 
a  third  party  has  come  in  that  wants  to  have  all  the 
cheating  to  itself,"  answered  the  edge-tool  the  veteran 
attempted  to  handle.  He,  that  had  been  in  the  Span 
ish  cruiser  from  New  Orleans,  and  the  American 
privateer  Curlew  from  Boston,  was  a  born  soldier, 
and  knew  how  to  carry  arms. 

Boldness  is  a  mark  of  genius.  He  hated  Spiritual 
ism,  and  claimed  to  be  an  exerciser.  "  The  spirits 
never  can  do  any  thing  after  I  come,"  he  said  :  "  they  all 
run  away."  His  deck  was  always  cleared  for  action. 
When  the  clergy  of  the  Methodist  circuit  were  dis 
paraged  by  a  Unitarian  as  worth  no  more  than  the 
small  salary  they  were  paid,  how  his  battery  blazed  ! 
"  I  will  set  them  foot  to  foot  against  any  of  you,  with  a 
Bible  in  one  hand  and  a  wilderness  of  human  souls 


332  RADICAL    PROBLEMS, 

before  them ! "  He  bade  a  boastful  British  officer 
remember  we  had  whipped  England.  "  What  credit 
to  whip  your  mother?"  growled  the  commodore. 
"  Not  much,"  answered  Taylor  ;  "  and  I  promise  you 
we  will  never  whip  the  old  lady  again  unless  she  gives 
us  very  particular  occasion."  His  repartees  were  droll 
enough  for  harlequin  with  their  grotesque  style,  but 
always  had  earnest  meaning.  A  young  man  having 
upset  the  Bible,  and  stooping  for  it  in  his  desk, 
"  Never  mind,"  says  Taylor ;  "I  can  put  it  up  next 
Sunday."  How  he  strode  up  and  down,  patting  the 
book  he  loved,  as  if  it  were  alive !  "  How  long 
shall  we  compass  this  Jericho  ? "  he  cried  at  a  revival 
meeting  in  the  vestry  of  the  West  Church.  I  sug 
gested  our  conversion  was  not  finished,  and  we 
needed  still  food  of  humility  more  than  the  mince-pie 
of  praise.  He  left  us  hurt  and  hot.  The  next  time  I 
met  him,  he  embraced  and  kissed  me  in  the  street. 
He  was  a  placable  enthusiast,  charitable  devotee, 
fanatic  but  for  his  love.  Entering  a  Boston  church, 
one  said,  "  This  seems  so  entirely  dedicated  to  God  as 
to  leave  no  room  for  man."  There  was  always  room 
for  man  where  Taylor  was.  How  audacious  to  ex 
plode  conventionalities !  Arguing  with  him  about 
perfection,  I  asked  if  anybody  had  been  as  good  as 
Jesus.  "  Millions."  he  replied  ;  an  answer  which, 
against  my  testimony,  Unitarians  and  Methodists  dis 
credit  and  try  to  explain  away.  Of  a  great  Rationalist 
lie  said,  "  There  is  a  screw  loose  somewhere  ;  but  I 
have  laid  my  ear  close  to  his  heart,  and  have  never 
been  able  to  detect  any  jar  in  the  machinery.  He 
must  £0  to  heaven  ;  for  Satan  would  not  know  what 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  333 

to  do  with  him  if  he  got  him.  Give  the  devil  his 
rations,  it  will  change  the  climate,  and  the  emigration 
will  be  that  way  ! "  Of  Transcendentalism  he  said, 
"  It  is  like  a  gull :  long  wings,  lean  body,  poor  feathers, 
and  miserable  meat."  "  Too  far  off:  the  King's  busi 
ness  requires  haste,"  he  would  tell  the  dull  speaker 
at  his  conference.  His  speech  was  seldom  bitter  or 
biting,  however  sometimes  wounding,  it  being  to  him 
sacrilege  to  keep  it  back.  His  censure  was  a  frigate's 
broadside,  or  a  lion's  roar ;  his  praise  was  a  medal,  a 
badge, -or  the  freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold  box,  the 
terms  were  so  solid  and  precious  in  which  it  was  put. 
He  named  the  sailor-talkers,  —  one,  "  pure  Hebrew;" 
another,  "  North  of  Europe  ;  "  a  third,  "  Salvation  set 
to  music."  But  for  the  iron  in  his  blood,  and  the 
gauntlet  on  his  hand,  he  would  have  been  a  spiritual 
glue,  a  mere  sympathy,  a  dissipated  mind. 

Beauty  is  a  mark  of  genius.  Of  the  poor  old 
ministers  he  said,  "  They  should  be  fed  on  preserved 
diamonds.  They  are  camels  in  the  desert,  bearing 
precious  treasures  and  browsing  on  bitter  herbs." 
The  charm  of  his  manners  who,  this  side  the  Orient, 
could  match?  At  a  distance,  seeing  you  afar  off, 
he  would  touch  his  heart,  his  forehead,  and  his  lips 
with  a  salute  that  seemed  too  much  for  aught  below 
angels  or  less  than  the  universe.  His  love  was  as  the 
sea ;  but  never  billow  lapped  the  beach  more  softly 
than  his  affection  touched  its  object.  His  untaught 
courtesy,  the  delicacy  of  demonstrativeness,  was  con 
spicuous  in  his  treatment  of  the  other  sex.  The  show 
was  a  drop  to  the  gulf  behind.  He  felt  the  truth,  that 
no  man  is  indebted  to  any  other  so  much  as  to  some 


334  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

woman.  His  purity  was  not  ice,  but  flame.  His 
bearing  was  royal,  and  made  every  woman  a  queen. 
No  calamity  could  extinguish  his  cheer  in  the  church 
or  by  the  way.  At  the  funeral  of  the  woman  whom 
he  said  he  should  claim  and  could  not  spare  in  hea 
ven,  he  leaned  his  shining  face  out  of  the  carriage, 
and  astonished  the  conventional  gloom  by  greet 
ing  people  on  the  way.  "  You  do  not  know  that 
old  Irishwoman,"  one  of  the  family  said,  trying  to 
put  on  him  some  decent  restraint.  "  Why  shouldn't 
she  have  her  share?  "was  his  retort.  He  and  Miss 
Sedgwick  once  met  suddenly  in  the  middle  of  the 
room.  "Did  you  mean  to  kiss  me?"  she  cried,  start 
ing  back.  "  I  only  know,"  he  answered,  "  I  got 
mine." 

Veracity  is  a  mark  of  genius  ;  and  that  is  a  false 
notion  which  makes  it  consist  in  any  exaggeration, 
which  Dr.  Johnson  said  all  eloquence  is.  There  is  in 
it  no  distortion  or  high  color.  It  is  true  to  Nature, 
low  and  neutral  when  she  is ;  and  Taylor  was  a  piece 
of  Nature  hewn  out  of  her  rock.  He  was  autochthon 
as  well  as,  and  before  he  was,  seraph.  It  was  said  of 
Daniel  Webster  he  gravitated  to  the  truth,  and  could 
not  argue  a  bad  case  comparatively  well,  —  as  we 
had  melancholy  proof.  Was  it  southern  blood  or 
sensitiveness  to  the  agitators'  faults  that  hindered  his 
rank  on  the  roll  of  any  reform,  save  of  the  common 
opinion  and  treatment  of  his  dear  sailors  ?  One  trait 
of  genius  we  might  say  he  lacked,  — foresight. 
He  was  no  prophet  of  freedom,  of  unacknowledged 
rights,  or  the  fine  arts.  It  was  wonderful  how  a  man, 
in  zeal  and  expression  so  extreme,  kept  the  middle 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  335 

path.  Prohibition  he  opposed  ;  said,  people  arriving 
tired  and  late  ought  to  be  allowed  some  refreshment ; 
and,  being  asked  his  views  of  the  unexecuted  pro 
hibitory  law,  keenly  replied,  "  I  did  not  know  there 
was  in  Massachusetts  any  such  law  !  "  For  examiners 
and  lawyers  he  was  a  terrible  man  to  have  in  the 
witness-box.  Yet  wanner  friend  of  temperance 
nobody  could  be.  He  said  he  would  have  "  all  the 
alcohol  buried  in  a  cave,  and  a  planet  rolled  to  the 
door."  What  a  Peter  the  Hermit  he  would  have  been, 
enlisted  in  any  cause !  But  he  thought  reformers 
overstated,  and  were  dangerous  and  unjust.  He  was 
too  sympathetic  for  the  work  of  those  who  have  to 
disown  society,  to  put  on  John  the  Baptist's  leathern 
girdle,  and  war  against  base  organic  ways.  To  be  a 
crusader,  he  must  have  been  made  of  sterner  stuff. 
Well  that  he  did  not  leave  his  own  stint.  The  com 
monweal  is  a  factory,  in  which  each  operative  must 
be  held  mainly  to  his  special  task.  The  good  genius, 
that  made  him  in  general  at  once  so  brilliant  and  just, 
and  wrought  mightily  through  him  like  the  demon  of 
Socrates,  was  not  always  present.  Sometimes  he 
failed  and  floundered  ;  and  the  friends  or  strangers, 
that  had  come  to  be  transported,  hung  their  heads. 
The  engine  was  detached,  and  the  train  halted,  though 
he  was  often  dextrous  to  recover  himself  and  escape. 
"  I  have  lost  my  nominative  case,"  he  said  once,  "  but 
I  am  on  the  way  to  glory."  A  ship  entangled  in  its 
manoeuvres  is  worse  off  than  a  skiff.  All  the  move 
ments  of  his  mind  were  radical,  and  could  suffer  no 
mortgage.  "  What  are  you  going  to  preach  about 
next  Sunday?"  he  was  asked.  "I  do  not  know:  I 


336  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

shall  not  forestall  God  !  "  His  quickness  could  not  be 
anticipated  or  outsped.  "  I  never  let  a  carnage  go 
before  me,"  he  said.  His  foot  was  the  type  of  his 
thought.  Beside  the  canonical  Scriptures  I  know 
not  what  he  read  but  the  old  English  divines ;  and 
perhaps  no  man  of  note  ever  'wrote  so  little,  in  the 
modern  world.  "  Why  do  you  go  round  so,  muttering 
to  yourself?  "  he  was  asked.  "  Because  I  like  to  talk 
to  a  sensible  man."  But  he  had  the  broadest  sight  and 
the  deepest  heart.  He  was  charged  with  inconsistency 
for  sympathizing  with  both  sides  in  a  quarrel.  But 
he  saw  truth  and  right  on  both  sides.  "  Disinterested  !  " 
he  said  ;  "  I  like  not  the  word  :  I  am  interested."  If 
religion  consists  in  fearing  God,  he  was  not  a  religious 
man.  "  Do  you  see  the  black  speck?  "  he  said,  lifting 
a  child  to  baptize.  On  no  bed-plate  of  a  creed  did 
his  machinery  move.  His  tenets  were  shrouds,  only 
better  to  help  him  spread  his  sails.  Any  resentment 
in  him  of  a  new  opinion  was  not  ignorance,  but  fore 
cast  of  the  mischief  into  which  he  supposed  it  would 
lead.  He  was  a  loyal  Christian  ;  nor  from  his  moor 
ings  could  be  torn.  Yet  he  fed  with  his  face,  and 
wanted  to  feed  on  all  others'  faces.  His  artist  nature 
froze,  and  the  -  shadow  of  an  infinite  grief  fell  on 
him  when  he  was  misunderstood  ;  and  he  could  be 
overheard  sobbing  and  groaning  in  his  room.  It  is 
the  lot  of  genius  !  God  taxes  us  on  the  amount  of 
our  property  ;  and  to  be  driven  to  appeal  to  him  is 
the  condition  of  excellence.  Yet  he  said  he  had 
never  seen  an  unhappy  day.  Boston  was  his  crown. 
How  dear  to  him  the  Port  Society !  "  Laugh  till  I 
get  back,"  was  one  of  his  farewells.  He  said  of  a 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  337 

gloomy  theologian,  "  He  seems  to  have  killed  some 
body,  and  wants  me  to  help  bury  the  body."  The 
reconciling  is  the  highest  mind.  It  was  the  glory  of 
Jesus.  Taylor  was  an  atonement  for  us.  He  said 
the  Good  Samaritan  did  not  "  maul  the  wounded 
traveller  with  texts."  "  O  Lord !  we  are  a  widow," 
was  his  prayer  for  a  bereaved  wife.  He  threw  a  little 
fish  he  had  caught  back  into  the  sea,  saying,  "  There, 
go  tell  your  grandmother  you  have  seen  a  ghost ! " 
The  chaise  he  once  owned  was  always  so  full  of  rag 
ged  children,  his  own  family  could  not  get  seats.  But 
all  his  sentiment  was  the  soaring  of  common  sense. 
It  was  the  weight  not  of  a  sparrow,  but  an  eagle.  In 
the  noble  Methodist  no  jot  of  Methodist  cant.  The 
little  girl,  who  explained  her  kneeling  at  his  coffin  by 
saying,  "  He  was  my  friend,"  and  the  orange-woman 
who  walked  up  the  aisle  of  the  crowded  church  with 
her  basket  on  her  arm,  were  his  witnesses. 

Newness  is  a  mark  of  genius.  Taylor  was  full  of 
surprises  and  novelties.  He  astonished  a  minister, 
who  had  refused  to  enter  his  pulpit  because  a  Unitarian 
had  been  in  it,  by  falling  on  his  knees  on  the  pulpit- 
stairs  and  crying  out,  "  O  Lord  !  deliver  us  in  Boston 
from  two  things,  bad  rum  and  bigotry  :  thou  knowest 
which  is  worst,  for  I  don't ! "  When  Lincoln  suc 
ceeded  Buchanan,  he  gave  Father  Abraham  an  outfit 
of  benediction  and  gracious  prophecy.  "  But,  O  Lord  ! 
as  for  this  stuff  that  is  going  out,  we  won't  say  much 
about  that !  "  Reading  a  proclamation  after  an  elec 
tion,  and  pronouncing  the  words,  "  God  save  the  Com 
monwealth"  he  added,  "  He  did  that  last  Tuesday  ! " 
He  also  prayed  that  the  "  creatures  about  the  Presi- 

22 


338  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

dent  would  not  bore  a  hole  through  the  sheathing  of 
his  integrity."  After  some  trivial  talk  was  over,  at  a 
conference,  he  informed  the  speakers  he  was  glad  to 
see  the  "  light  stuff  floating  off."  "Won't  you  make 
!a  prayer  before  you  go?"  said  a  woman  to  him  in  her 
.house.  "What  do  you  want?"  he  asked;  "I  can't 
.  make  a  prayer."  He  said  of  metaphysicians,  "  They 
are  like  lightning-bugs  in  a  cedar-swamp  in  Carolina : 
snap,  snap,  and  there  seems  a  little  light ;  then  all 
dark  as  ever."  Mr.  Webster  ridiculed  the  Higher 
Law,  comparing  it  to  the  Blue  Ridge  and  other  things 
above  all  practical  concern.  Taylor  said,  "  Higher 
Law  !  a  meteoric  stone  :  stand  from  under  !  "  It  killed 
Mr.  Webster.  His  opposition  to  it  was  the  unpardon 
able  sin.  He  knew  better.  Taylor  said  to  some 
stolid  worshippers,  "  I  would  as  lief  have  so  many 
canes  and  umbrellas  in  the  pews !  I  see  some  fat 
people,  corpulent.  That  is  swine's  flesh."  How  the 
obesity  shrank  from  his  eyes  peering  round !  As  a 
visitor  concluded  his  patronizing  survey  of  the  Mari 
ner's  House,  Taylor  said,  "  Now  we  will  hear  any 
other  up-town  sinner  who  wants  to  confess."  He 
explained  the  verdict  of  the  governor  on  the  "  good 
wine,  kept  until  now,"  by  saying  it  was  the  best  of 
water  in  the  jars,  of  which  "  that  old  soaker  knew 
not  the  taste."  He  said  to  a  minister,  some  of  whose 
young  folk  a  new  pulpit  celebrity  had  taken  away, 
"  I  understand  he  has  had  his  shovel  under  your 
garden-flowers."  Leaving  home,  this  was  his  pic 
ture  of  Providence  :  "  He,  that  gives  the  whale  a  cart 
load  of  herrings  every  morning  for  breakfast,  will 
take  care  of  my  babes."  Called  upon  by  an  impatient 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  339 

throng,  waiting  for  Webster  to  speak,  he  hushed  them 
by  saying,  "  I  never  saw  such  a  crowd  of  good-nature." 
The  wonder  of  his  pathos  was,  that  when  you  cried^ 
and  he  was  crying  more,  tears  rolling  down  to  bathe1 
his  face,  he  kept  on  swift  and  even  as  the  ten-feet 
diameter  wheels  in  an  express  train.  He  described 
Channing  dying,  with  the  setting  sun  making  its  way 
into  the  chamber  through  the  clambering  vines  ;  and 
melted  his  hearers  with  the  charge,  "Walk  in  the 
light,  walk  in  the  light !  "  His  wife  gave  him  fifty 
dollars  to  pay  a  bill.  He  brought  the  bill  with  no 
receipt.  "What  have  you  done  with  the  money?" 
she  asked.  "  Why,  I  met  a  superannuated  brother, 
and  how  could  I  ask  him  to  change  fifty  dollars?" 
Describing  some  sot,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  will  pursue 
that  man,  and  never  give  him  up  ! "  His  little  child 
thought  it  was  his  face  made  the  flower  open,  and 
said,  "  It  is  sunshine,  father ;  isn't  it?"  He  loved  like 
God. 

But  his  genius  had  authority  too  for  its  mark.     He  I 
denounced    a   troublesome    shiftless    character   as    an\ 
"  expensive    machine."      His  brain  was    camera  and  ' 
battery  too.       "Can  a  Calvinist  be  a  Christian?"  he 
asked   Dr.   Bushnell.     "  Certainly ! "   was   the    reply. 
"  Don't  be  too  quick  !     Suppose  God  should  say  to  the 
elect  in  heaven,  Now  I  will  turn  this  stick,  and  give 
the   other   end   a   chance:    would  they  be    content?" 
One,  who  had  given   information   secretly  about   his 
conduct  in  the  sick-room,  asked  him  to  say  grace  at 
table.     He  found  her  out ;  and,  stirring  his  coffee,  and 
not  shutting  his  eyes,  but  looking  straight  at  her,  said, 
"  Lord,  deliver  us  from  deceit,  conceit,  and  tattling  !  " 


34-O  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  boy  that  ran  away  from  home  when  nine  years 
old  was,  as  Mr.  Webster  said  of  himself,  rather  hard 
to  coax,  and  harder  to  drive.  The  reformers,  he 
thought,  tried  to  drive  him,  and  his  back  was  up.  He 
could  not  be  second,  being  first.  He  was  called  com 
modore,  and  felt  he  was  in  command.  He  curried 
not  the  favor  he  got.  When  fashionable  folk  took  the 
sailors'  seats  in  the  Bethel,  he  told  them  they  must 
stand,  and  not  Jack.  He  was  superbly  polite  and 
deferential,  but  in  no  company  subordinate  or  abashed. 
No  culture  could  exceed  the  polish  his  substance  took  ; 
but  he  was  at  the  head.  This  guest  was  equal  to  any 
host.  He  was  a  chief  in  his  black  cravat ;  and,  when 
he  had  been  combed,  how  handsome  he  sat  while  the 
wisest  hung  on  his  lips,  from  which  every  word  was 
an  artist's  piece  in  color  !  "  The  sea,  majestic  !  "  he 
said  ;  and  his  face  was  "  the  wrinkled  sea,"  with  all 
its  grandeur,  and  the  incalculable  laughter  of  which 
yEschylus  writes.  For  him  there  must  be  "  more 
sea  !  "  He  had  the  dignity  of  one  on  the  quarter-deck. 
"If  my  employers  are  not  content,  they  shall  see  the 
back  seams  of  my  stockings."  He  would  have  been 
like  Adoniram  Judson,  of  whom  the  captain  he  took 
passage  with  told  me  that,  when  the  ship  was  attacked 
by  pirates,  he  loaded  and  fired  faster  than  any  man  he 
ever  saw.  Taylor  was  not  mealy-mouthed.  A  Uni 
tarian  preacher  having  descanted  on  the  ever-lingering 
misery  of  sinful  memory  after  repentance,  he  compared 
him  to  a  beetle-bug  rolling  over  the  sand  his  ball  of 
dirt.  Something  supreme  and  final  was  always  in 
the  sentence  he  pronounced.  He  was  lowly  and  lordly 
too.  The  belt  of  no  man  or  woman  was  adorned  with 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  34! 

his  scalp.  "  He  will  have  his  hide  on  the  fence  to 
morrow,"  said  a  coarse  man,  of  the  way  a  certain 
master  would  proceed  with  his  opponent.  Easy  to  be 
entreated  as  Taylor  was,  he  was  ready  for  whoever 
wanted  to  contend,  and  meant  there  should  be  no 
drawn  battle.  Seeing  a  man  in  the  pulpit  whom  he 
did  not  like,  he  turned  rapidly  to  leave  the  house. 
His  genius  was  no  wandering  impulse  :  he  was  borne 
on  as  a  billow,  but  with  a  mighty  design.  There  is  an 
inspiration  to  the  will  from  the  perception  of  truth 
which  gives  the  right  to  decide  and  direct.  The  doc 
trine  of  Infallibility  is  true,  though  not  of  the  pope  as 
such.  Sixtus  said  the  truth  had  been  committed  to 
him,  though  he  sometimes  thought  he  had  lost  the 
key  !  It  is  committed  to  every  man  who  knows  that 
truth  is  truth,  knows  it  when  he  sees  it.  Human  falli 
bility  is  a  mean  phrase.  Uncertainty  is  atheism  and 
despair.  My  beholding  warrants  my  affirming.  In 
tuition  justifies  assumption  ;  and  Taylor,  because  he 
transmitted,  swayed. 

A  sure  mark  of  genius  is  its  clothing  of  grace. 
Nature,  says  Goethe,  is  pledged  to  the  protection  of 
genius  ;  and  she  protects  not  only  its  life,  but  its  action 
and  speech  from  all  deformity  and  bad  taste.  Taylor's 
most  unforeseeable  flights  kept  the  line  of  order  ;  and 
accomplished  philosophers  were  awkward  and  angular 
before  the  flexile  motions  of  his  body  and  mind.  In 
his  oddest  figures  we  had  to  own  a  charm.  When  he 
said  of  a  famous  soprano  singer,  "  She  screams  like  a 
pea-hen,"  or  of  the  two  or  three,  that  came  to  the  meet 
ing,  out  of  a  great  body,  "  These  are  the  absorbents  ;" 
he  showed  himself  a  detective  of  correspondences 
Swedenborg  might  admire. 


342  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Another  note  of  genius  is  presence  of  mind,  or  the 
whole  man  at  the  occasion,  in  what  he  says  and  does  ; 
though  we  call  its  inattention  and  deafness  to  our 
irrelevant  trifles  of  talk  and  procedure  absence  of 
mind.  It  knows  where  it  is  !  "I  feel,"  said  Ole  Bull, 
after  an  improvisation  on  the  violin,  "  as  if  I  had  been 
in  other  worlds."  "  The  light  that  never  was  on  land 
or  sea  "  is  sometimes  in  a  human  face.  Female  vanity 
hides  little  jets  of  gas-light  under  the  hair  to  make  a 
halo  round  the  head.  But  Taylor  was  like  Moses  :  he 
wist  not  that  his  face  shone.  Presence  of  mind  in  him 
was  sometimes  absence  of  body  as  well  as  self-oblivion. 
He  forgot  his  wedding-day,  and  was  out  on  Telegraph 
Hill,  in  Hull,  with  a  spy-glass,  talking  of  his  dear 
Deborah,  when  she  was  waiting  for  him  to  keep  his 
appointment  as  a  bridegroom  in  Marblehead.  Nature 
was  strong  in  his  character.  This  convert  had  no 
change  of  heart ;  though  listening  to  Mr.  Hedding's 
sermon  he  said,  "  I  cried  for  quarters  soon." 

One  more  trait  of  genius  is  continuity.  He  did  not, 
like  oratorical  experts,  hoard  his  good  things  to  say 
over  again,  so  that  following  him  round  we  had  the 
same  old  fund  of  commonplaces  and  store  of  jokes ; 
but  went  on,  his  word  a  marvel  to  everybody  and  not 
less  to  himself,  fresh  as  the  morning  or  a  new-blown 
rose  ;  because  his  was  not  Everett's  art  or  Phillips's 
genius  for  elocution,  but  his  own  of  eloquence.  He 
was  fearless  of  death,  but  stoutly  said  he  would  not 
give  up  till  he  was  dead.  Being  told  he  was  going  to 
the  angels  :  "  Folks  better  than  angels  ! "  he  said.  He 
was  grieved  because  the  last  time  a  friend  visited  him 
he  could  not  wait  upon  her  to  the  door.  Shortly 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  343 

before  his  death  he  went  several  times  to  the  glass  and 
addressed  himself  as  another  man  needing  salvation, 
saying,  "  I  guess  you  are  not  ready  ;  you,  old  man  and 
infidel,  have  not  made  up  your  mind  :  "  then  looked  at 
himself  with  silent  scorn,  as  if  comparing  his  reduced 
estate  with  former  glory.  His  last  audible  prayer 
was  :  "  Lord,  what  am  I  here  for?  What  am  I  doing 
here?  I'm  no  use  to  anybody.  The  love  my  friends 
have  for  me  will  soon  be  gone.  The  love  I  have  for 
my  friends  will  soon  be  gone.  Now,  Lord,  some 
morning  suddenly  snatch  me  to  thyself!"  The  Lord 
heard ;  the  Lord  did !  He  went,  as  a  sailor  would, 
just  at  the  turn  of  the  tide.  It  was  ebb-tide  here  :  it 
was  flootf-tide  somewhere.  The  death  below  was  a 
mighty  birth  above.  Such  a  soul,  beyond  miracle  or 
prophecy,  is  proof  of  immortality.  A  brother  once 
said  to  him,  "  Give  me  a  subject."  "  It  would  be  too 
hot  for  you  to  hold,"  he  answered.  Marvellous  such 
a  flame  burnt  so  long !  The  fire  has  not  gone  out,  but 
the  fuel.  Must  there  not  be  more  fuel  for  such  a  fire  ? 
I  ask  leave  to  see  it  burn  again  !  He  was  restless  the 
last  nights  ;  and  his  nurse,  a  man  that  slept  by  him, 
tried  to  keep  him  in  bed,  as  if  with  an  unconscious 
hand.  "  Do  you  know,"  Taylor  said  to  him,  "  how 
smoothly  you  are  sinning?  You  are  trying  to  cheat 
the  Devil ;  but  he  will  find  you  out !  "  Happy  continu 
ation  now  is  not  that  unrest? 

Shall  we  not  say  he  was  one  of  the  universal  men  ? 
He  resists  all  sectarian  claim  or  classification.  He  drew 
every  furrow  with  a  subsoil  plough.  He  was  not  a 
local  celebrity,  but  an  honor  to  mankind.  Unknown 
to  literature,  he  will  be  a  tradition  in  the  common 


344  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

mind.  Across  the  line  of  party  he  stood  a  colossus 
guarding  the  harbor  for  humanity.  He  was  a  Rad 
ical,  not  born  late,  out  of  due  time,  as  Paul  said,  but 
before  the  time.  Yet  he  was  no  heretic,  but  a  uniter, 
reaching  the  man  in  all  men.  He  spoke  not  to  one 
set  or  sort  of  persons,  but  was  understood  with  equal 
delight  by  every  class.  Fine  lady  and  scholar  —  Miss 
Bremer  and  Jenny  Lind  and  Charles  Dickens  — 
mixed,  in  the  Bethel,  with  the  tars  that  had  anchors 
in  India  ink  on  the  back  of  their  hands,  or  clumsy 
rings  in  their  ears,  or  vertebrse  of  sharks  to  hold  the 
kerchiefs  round  their  necks.  Two  hundred  millions 
of  miles  measure  the  diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit  for 
the  yard-stick  of  astronomy.  The  circuit  of  his  revo 
lution  was  a  parallax  for  the  race. 

Faith  is  a  mark  of  genius.  Systems  of  doubt  or 
pessimism  have  been  built  by  able  logicians,  but  never 
by  intuitive  men.  For  every  truth  of  the  spirit  is  a  lie 
in  the  understanding ;  and  the  head,  informed  but  by 
the  senses,  is  an  infidel  and  atheist.  The  finer  intel 
lect  of  love  and  imagination  discerns  truth  and  being. 
This  intelligence  in  Taylor  was  so  perfect,  —  his 
thought  was  in  such  contact  with  the  ideal  thing, — 
that  he  never  talked  of  faith.  That  seems  to  inter 
pose  a  process  between  the  faculty  and  its  object. 
He  knew,  and  had  a  lofty  scorn  for  anybody's  refusal 
of  the  term  knowledge  to  spiritual  matters.  He 
owned  the  One  God  in  some  Trinitarian  way,  as  the 
Athanasian  Trinity  hints  the  infinite  mystery  better 
than  that  bald  Hebrew  and  Unitarian  monotheism  in 
which  God  is  an  individual ;  although  a  three-fold 
Deity  be  not  so  good  as  a  manifold. 


GENIUS  :     FATHER     TAYLOR.  345 

Once  more,  a  mark  of  genius  is  joy.  It  denies  the 
reality  of  wickedness  or  woe,  and  affirms  the  preva 
lence  of  the  Good.  It  chants  the  rhythm  of  the  river 
of  God.  The  test  of  the  soundness  of  any  scheme  is, 
Can  it  be  sung?  Is  the  essence  of  harmony  and 
poetry  in  it?  We  are  told  there  is  a  wedding  of 
misery  and  music  in  some  famous  compositions,  as 
Bach's  St.  Matthew  passion-music,  Dante's  "  Inferno," 
and  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost."  But  the  wretched 
tenets  never  inspired  the  tune.  The  wondrous  score 
of  the  Prince  of  harmonists  means  from  his  choral 
soul  more  and  other  than  the  Calvinism  attached  to  it. 
The  old  dogmas  hang  as  a  weight  on  the  wings  of  the 
English  bard,  and  make  his  poem,  which  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  called  "  perhaps  the  noblest  monument  of  human 
genius,"  in  parts  heavy  reading.  It  is  the  justice, 
not  the  curse,  that  gives  such  lurid  glory  to  the 
Italian's  lines.  Yet  both  these  mighty  works  are  of 
the  past,  —  Songs,  as  David  says,  of  degrees,  dimin 
ishing,  —  hardly  of  the  present,  not  at  all  of  the  future, 
and  sure  to  feel  the  tooth  of  time  as  the  conceptions 
they  grew  out  of  are  outgrown  by  the  advancing 
human  mind.  "  Faust,"  for  eschewing  their  fatality, 
may  outlast  them,  till  itself  yield  to  some  deeper  dis 
covery  of  the  gladness  of  creation's  root.  Wiggles- 
worth's  "  Day  of  Doom  "  and  Pollok's  »'  Course  of 
Time  "  are  just  expressions  of  the  gloomy  theology  in 
its  discord  of  untruth,  —  the  harmonies  of  Orthodoxy 
being  to  those  of  the  coming  faith  as  Chinese  gongs 
to  Beethoven's  symphonies.  Taylor  was  the  happy 
<  nature.  He  was  a  day  of  jubilee.  The  Sun  of 
Righteousness  was  always  rising  on  him,  and  the 


346  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

vapors  could  not  stay.  The  burden  of  sin,  he  de 
clared,  could  be  dropped  in  a  moment.  He  admitted 
no  essential  evil ;  and,  though  he  said  devil,  he  de 
spised  and  routed  that  adversary  as  Luther  did.  With 
his  irresistible  cheer,  he  practised  the  apostolic  gift  of 
absolution  to  sad  and  despairing  men,  as  well  as  Peter 
or  John.  He  was  not  tolerant  on  the  surface  and  a 
bigot  at  the  core,  like  some  Radicals,  as  sour  when 
they  are  ripe  as  when  they  are  green.  No  dogmatism 
sailed  under  the  flag  of  his  liberality,  and  no  Indifler- 
entism  stretched  his  charity  so  wide.  He  was  no 
eclectic,  with  a  patch-work  of  opinions  picked  from 
every  quarter ;  and  no  syncretist,  in  whose  mind  con 
tradictory  notions  throve  together.  He  professed  not 
that  large  swallow  for  all  sorts  of  belief,  which  is 
called  catholicity,  and  means  crudity.  Nor  had  he 
any  scrupulosity  to  thrust  on  others,  by  which  to 
square  their  conduct  to  his  judgment,  and  sacrifice 
God  and  man  on  the  shrine  of  a  morbid  conscience. 
He  never  flew  in  your  face  with  ill-advised  interfer 
ence,  nor  crowded  you  with  that  self-pronouncing  and 
intruding  individuality  which  by  dint  of  present  hon 
esty  and  absent  sympathy  becomes  the  worst  tyranny. 
His  weight  was  not  oppression.  He  was  no  cynic, 
taking  exceptions ;  and,  if  he  could  roar,  he  did  not 
know  how  to  bark.  He  was  in  no  covert,  conceiving 
suspicions,  pregnant  with  plots,  or  hatching  any  hate. 
If  he  was  ever  for  a  moment  angry,  he  never  nursed  his 
spite.  His  presence  was  a  lifting  of  the  curtains  and 
letting  in  the  sun.  He  was  a  medium,  and  God  not  a 
scientific  conclusion  he  waited  for,  or  a  metaphysical 
abstraction  constructed  of  arguments,  like  a  child's 


GENIUS  I     FATHER     TAYLOR.  347 

doll  of  rags,  but  a  living  spring,  not  to  be  cut  from 
the  stream  ;  appearing  best  not  in  the  earth  or  the  sky, 
but  that  image  of  himself  in  which  he  made  man. 

Whence  came  this  prodigy  of  power  ?  What  blood 
of  England  or  Italy  flowed  in  his  veins?  Neither  he 
nor  his  seem  to  have  known.  He  is  our  King  Mel- 
chisedec,  without  father  or  mother,  every  thing  hid 
but  his  divine  descent.  We  must  claim  for  an  Ameri 
can  one  whose  patriotism  would  have  made  him 
equally  ready  with  Franklin  to  argue  in  a  foreign 
court,  or  with  Farragut  to  lash  himself  to  the  mast  in 
the  harbor  of  New_  Orleans.  He  hated  secession  as 
Satan  ;  and,  while  at  home  with  foreigners  of  every 
nation,  was  proud  of  his  native  land  as  the  crown  of 
the  globe.  He  was  a  case  of  Nature's  bounty  in  her 
most  royal  mood,  and,  himself  a  true  sovereign,  the 
head  of  every  board  at  which  he  sat.  Doubtless  in 
him  was  something  presiding  that  could  not  take  the 
inferior  part.  When  his  little  daughter,  being  chid 
for  ill-reading,  took  it  to  heart,  he  said :  "  Don't  be  a 
fool.  Why  don't  you  go  on  ?  "  —  "  Because,  father,  I 
am  a  fool."  —  "  Yes,"  he  rejoined,  "  that  is  a  capital 
thing  to  find  out!"  quenching  in  drollery  his  severity, 
with  that  interplay  of  faculties  always  at  his  command. 
Is  not  this  genius,  to  blend  all  powers  in  one  ?  We 
knew  not  what  he  would  do  next ;  only  it  would  be 
some  happy  turn  ;  for  he  was  not  of  that  order  of 
mind  that  sees  the  dark  side  and  flies  to  the  sore  spot, 
the  critic  that  spoils  conversation  and  shuts  out  those 
whom  he  is  intent  on  convicting  from  enriching  him 
self.  It  was  Taylor's  generosity  to  be  open  and 
receptive,  —  to  give  and  take  as  a  child. 


RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

How  account  for  this  phenomenon  of  genius?  It  is 
easier  to  assign  its  characteristics  than  its  conditions. 
We  shall  trace  its  origin,  when  we  can  give  the  gen 
esis  of  God.  There  is  nothing  a  metaphysician  will 
not  attempt ;  but  no  manufactory  has  yet  been  set 
up  to  deliver  such  articles  as  I  have  described,  run 
smoothly  as  the  barren  machine  of  a  theory  will. 
"Who  shall  tell  his  generation?"  Even  the  Christ 
Christendom  worships  is  no  pure  historic  person,  but 
in  part  a  creation  of  the  human  mind.  Glory  of 
Greek  myth  through  John's  Gospel  flows  in  to  fill  out 
the  synoptic  figure  of  the  other  evangelists  into  sub 
limity  ;  and  Paul  is  so  entranced  with  the  ideal 
Saviour  of  inward  revelation,  he  does  not  want  to  see 
the  actual  one  of  flesh  and  blood  ;  while  we  never 
hear  of  Thomas  as  inspired  to  do  aught  with  his 
proof  of  fingers  in  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  hand 
thrust  into  the  side  !  Plato  translates  into  poetry  the 
Socratic  prose.  But  Jesus  was  the  poet  of  God. 
What  he  showed  and  acted  he  melodiously  spoke.  It 
was  a  near  and  intimate  fact.  In  something  like  the 
same  solution  was  Nature  in  this  loyal  disciple's  mind. 
He  used  no  telescope  of  philosophic  thought.  Nothing 
was  far  from  him.  Such  manifestations  as  came  from 
the  untaught  mariner's  minister  escape  analysis.  The 
breathing  they  articulate  who  can  measure  or  under 
stand  ? 


XV. 

EXPERIENCE. 

WHEN  Paul  spoke  of  himself,  he  said  he  spoke 
as  a  fool.  Yet  how  glad  we  are  he  spoke  ! 
In  the  assizes,  answering  to  the  apostle's  confession, 
held  for  a  minister  on  his  anniversary  days,  he  seems 
to  have  an  unfair  advantage.  He  is  judge,  jury,  advo 
cate,  witness  on  the  stand,  sheriff,  and  prisoner  in  the 
box,  which  the  pulpit  is.  He  is  all  but  the  spectators 
in  court.  Yet  they  are  the  silent  bench  with  which 
lies  the  decision  of  his  competency.  I  plead  guilty, 
after  protracted  illness,  of  which  I  gave  no  speech  or 
voluntary  sign.  To  all  concerned,  let  me  say,  the 
confession  could  have  come  earlier  only  as  a  groan. 
NowT  it  is  detached  from  experience  into  a  thought,  I 
feel  that  any  suspicion  of  my  wrongly  remaining  a 
minister  tallies  with  my  own  judgment. 

"  Superfluous  lags  a  veteran  on  the  stage." 

I  have  lingered,  hoping  to  be  a  helper  still,  haunted 
by  some  dream  of  being  more  useful  because  of  what 
I  have  endured.  But  I  would  especially  give  a  lesson 
of  sympathy  for  that  class  of  patients  I  have  belonged 
to,'  called  nervous,  always  numerous  in  a  community 


35°  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

under  high  pressure,  and  with  many  cases  arising 
from  the  tremendous  strain  of  our  civil  war.  Is  this 
sort  of  sickness  hard  to  bear  with?  It  is  harder  to 
bear !  What  are  its  symptoms  ?  Loss  of  appetite, 
loathing  of  exercise,  and  greater  disgust  of  quiet,  dis 
content  alike  with  motion  or  rest,  irritability  of  fibre, 
magnifying  of  trifles  of  dispute,  indecision,  and  dis 
satisfaction  with  either  alternative,  preference  of  the 
thing  we  did  not  choose  or  was  not  chosen  for  us, 
impotent  thought,  fugitive  sleep.  Sleep  He  gives  to 
his  beloved :  does  he  hate  those  from  whom  it  is  with 
held?  Sleep,  God's  sub-creator  of  the  human  body 
and  soul,  his  agon  or  emanation  needful  to  plants  and 
animals,  preserver  of  reason,  fender-off  of  death,  more 
to  us  than  food  ;  sleep,  which  we  must  have,  even  at 
the  cost  of  a  poisonous  drug,  else  expire  or  become 
insane  ;  sleep,  for  which  God  made  poppy,  opium, 
and  ether,  and  chloral,  —  that  is  the  banished  friend, 
vainly  implored  visitor  of  the  weak  or  disordered 
brain  that  needs  it  most. 

"  O  gentle  sleep,  how  have  I  frighted  thee?" 

"Macbeth  hath  murdered  sleep." 

It  was  the  worst  of  all  capital  crimes.  Young  man 
or  woman,  do  no  evil  or  excess  to  kill  your  sleep  ! 

"  When  restless  on  my  bed  I  lie, 

Still  courting  sleep,  which  still  will  fl y :  " 

How  often,  as  the  midnight  hours  rolled  slowly  on, 
and  my  bed  became  not  a  refuge,  but  a  rack,  have  I 
repeated  and  thanked  that  good  bishop  Noel  for  the 
lines  his  own  necessity  must  have  inspired !  How 
often  have  I  lain,  and  noted  the  signs  of  the  city's 


EXPERIENCE.  351 

waking :  the  scream  of  an  early  train  near  the  station, 

—  an  affront  to  the  sick  that  ought  to  be  put  away  by 
some    substitute    of  noiseless    signals, — the  tread  of 
some   preposterous  walker  before  peep   of  dawn,  the 
rattle  of  a  milk-cart  getting  the  start  of  any  coach  ;  at 
last,  the  street  official  putting  out  the  gas-light,  without 

—  let  us  be  thankful  for  so  much — his  noisy  ladder 
now ;    and,    all    through,    alternating    with    fits     and 
snatches  of  uneasy  slumber,  the  clang  of  the  neighbor 
ing  town-clock,  telling  the  hours  or  tolling  them  for 
whom,  —  man    or  woman,  —  in   the   glare    of   some 
night-lamp    drawing    the    last    breath  !      Putting    the 
head  in  a  particular  position,  counting  mathematical 
figures,  walking  like    Franklin   round    the    chamber, 
and   many  other   specifics  against  sleeplessness,  have 
been   prescribed.      I   have  found  tranquil   prayer  for 
sleep  the  best.     He  who  does  not  sleep  is  never  truly 
awake.      The  calenture  of  the  night  succeeds  coma 
tose  dozing  in  the  day.     Capacity  for  comfort  fails : 
the  charm  of  life  is  gone. 

The  sufferer  endures  a  curious  divorce  of  eye  and 
heart.  He  sees  clearly  what  he  cannot  enjoy.  "  Beauti 
ful  !  "  cried  those  who  rode  with  me  through  woods 
and  flowers,  along  the  Connecticut  banks,  round  Sun 
day  Mountain,  in  New  Hampshire,  or  curving  in  and 
out  of  the  beaches  and  tide-lapped  indentations  of 
Cape  Ann.  "  I  perceive  it,"  I  answered,  "  but  do  not 
feel.  Strange  !  I  who  have  felt  such  things  so  much." 
"  Sublime  !  "  sang  my  fellow-voyagers  of  the  sea,  roof 
ing  its  calm  floor  with  the  eternal  vault,  or  rolling  its 
surface  into  floating  crests  that  mocked  the  fixed  ones 
of  the  everlasting  hills.  Yes:  I  could  give  it  an 


352  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

understanding,  but  no  heart  or  tongue  !  The  great 
Atlantic,  shouldering  with  the  weight  of  a  thousand 
leagues  of  billows  against  the  harborless  Azores,  the 
ship-devouring  rocks,  like  tusks,  the  light  froth  on 
which  I  could  distinguish  three  miles  off;  Fayal, 
with  its  lovely  gardens  to  match  almost  those  of  Kew 
or  Versailles ;  Madeira,  frequented  by  English  in 
valids,  a  huge  emerald,  with  color  more  enchanting 
for  the  mist  that  laced  its  sides,  and  curled  through 
every  rugged  gorge ;  Teneriffe,  like  which,  Milton 
says,  Satan  stood,  but  which  seemed  to  me  not  defiant, 
rather  as  one  that  bore  a  smoking  censer,  and  wor 
shipped  before  God  ;  Oritava,  a  town  creeping  safe 
into  the  hollows  betwixt  its  spurs  of  brown  volcanic 
tufa  and  the  boundless  surge,  —  these  are  pictures  I 
gaze  at  now,  with  my  mind's  eye,  with  tenfold  more 
pleasure  than  when  I  saw  them  indeed.  As  I  leaned, 
and  would  scarce  have  resented  or  resisted  being 
thrown  over  the  gunwale,  the  floating  sea-weed  on 
the  blue  water  seemed  less  adrift  and  more  at  home 
than  I.  The  pine  barrens  of  that  big  sand-bank,  and 
last  bit  of  the  continent  which  the  Gulf  slipped  off 
from,  —  Florida,  —  delight  me  in  reflection  as  they  did 
not  when  I  wandered  through  them,  and  picked  from 
the  rugged  waste,  in  February,  as  delicate  blossoms 
as  New  England  field  or  garden  can  show  in  June. 

It  is  a  question,  through  which  we  get  most,  the 
eye  or  ear.  The  deaf  and  blind  would  not  agree !  I 
should  say  the  eye  ;  yet,  in  some  conditions  of  de 
bility,  more  from  the  ear,  partly  that  it  is  a  more 
passive  organ.  There  never  was  a  time  when  a 
hymn  sweetly  sung  by  a  human  voice,  or  the  piano 


EXPERIENCE.  353 

struck  by  a  friendly  band,  or  the  church-organ  making 
the  pews  tremble,  or  gushing  through  the  windows, 
as  I  wandered  outside,  too  weak  to  go  in, 'could  not 
soothe  a  little  the  agitated  soul.  But  Jesus  was  right, 
as  he  always  is :  the  Spirit  is  the  Comforter.  When 
I  could  not  enjoy  conversation,  or  write  a  letter,,  or 
without  reluctance  sign  my  name,  or  visit  a  friend,  or 
do  the  terrible  business  of  shaving  my  beard,  or  read 
a  book  or  column  of  a  newspaper,  save  sentence  by 
sentence,  and  nobody  wrote  to  me,  because  I  wrote  to 
nobody ;  when  my  nature  recoiled  from  a  familiar 
face,  like  the  hand  of  a  boy  first  touching  a  galvanic 
battery ;  when  the  Diary  I  took  abroad  with  me  to 
make  notes  in  came  back  blank  as  it  went,  without 
one  record  ;  when  I  could  not  think  or  love  or  pray, 
save  as  in  lucid  intervals  the  pall  lifted  to  shut  me  in 
again, —  then,  the  sun  being  gone,  some  One,  as  in 
the  English  Hunt's  picture,  came  with  a  lantern.  The 
blaze  of  ideas,  whence  I  knew  not,  visited  my 
wintry  season  ;  as  the  earth's  procession  through  the 
shower  of  countless  stars  comes  at  the  dismal  November 
section  of  its  annual  round.  Talk  of  poor  Joseph  cast 
into  an  empty  pit !  This  mental  depression  is  a  pit  of 
deeper  vacuity,  harder  than  solitary  confinement  in 
jail.  When  a  noble  woman,  living  companionless 
with  her  disease,  was  admonished  for  saying  God's 
dealing  with  her  had  been  rather  hard,  she  answered, 
smiling :  "  Oh,  I  tell  him  worse  things  than  that  when 
I  am  with  him  alone  !  "  Have  you  never  been  tempted 
to  remonstrate  like  Job,  or  cry,  with  Luther,  "  God, 
art  thou  dead?  "  The  medicines  in  his  chest,  like  the 
arrows  in  his  quiver,  exceed  computation.  Yet  "  how 

23 


354  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

long,  O  Lord  ?  "  Why  wonder  what  Christ  meant  by 
being  abandoned  ?  Has  not  everybody  been  in  Geth- 
semane?  Travelling  does  not  take  you  there.  'Tis 
not  by  steam  or  rail  you  arrive.  I  want  no  com 
mentator  to  tell  me  what  particular  Psalm  he  quoted 
from.  I  have  been  down  with  him,  unable  to  cope 
with  Nature  or  struggle  with  the  crowd,  —  "  the  world 
too  many  for  me,"  as  said  poor  dying  Tulliver,  in  the 
story.  The  earth  rejected  me,  too  weary  to  stand  or 
walk  ;  the  air  rejected  me,  chilled  with  its  slightest 
east  or  northern  flaw ;  the  sea  rejected  me,  sick  of  its 
easiest  motion.  I  was  the  man  overboard,  with  head 
under  and  hand  uplifted,  whom  no  rope  is  thrown  to. 
What  shall  I  do  ?  Whither  can  I  go  ?  "  Why  hast 
thou  forsaken  me  ?  " 

When  the  substance  of  anguish  had  passed,  a  long 
comet's  tail,  such  as  you  have  seen  athwart  the 
heavens,  of  thinness  and  inefficiency,  drew  after.  But 
"  in  a  hundred  and  fifty  days,"  we  read,  the  deluge 
abated,  "  and  the  tops  of  the  mountains  were  seen." 
Every  cloud  is  fugitive  :  the  sun  remains,  holds  his 
station,  and  is  bigger  than  any  cloud.  By  impercep 
tible  degrees,  strength  returns,  grain  by  grain,  too 
small  for  a  month  of  them  to  be  weighed ;  atoms  from 
the  ground  through  a  million  foot-falls,  particles  from 
the  atmosphere  to  the  convalescing  invalid  the  very 
breath  and  Spirit  of  God,  undulations  from  the  light 
the  sick  man  lies  and  suns  himself  in,  as  beams  of  His 
countenance.  He  seems  conscious  of  invisible  incre 
ments  from  the  jar  and  jolt  of  every  ship  or  carriage 
that  drags  or  tosses  him  across  the  hobbly  land,  or 
over  the  shifting,  uneven  deep  ;  most  of  all  from  looks 


EXPERIENCE.  355 

of  that  unaltered  human  love,  best  witness  of  the 
Divine.  I  was  in  need,  and  found  help.  After  break 
ing  the  bread,  I  was  famished  myself.  Then  I  fed  on 
friends'  faces.  Others'  death  and  sorrow,  which  I  had 
grappled  with,  got  me  in  their  grip.  Why  did  I  not 
give  up  my  Church?  I  was  too  selfish.  I  was  so 
identified  with  it,  in  a  common  circulation,  I  felt  I 
was  gone  if  I  gave  it  up  ;  I  should  have  died.  I 
clung  to  it  as  my  life-boat.  I  hung  to  it  as  a  sailor  to 
a  spar  aloft  in  a  hurricane,  or  half-drowned  in  the 
boiling  gulf.  If  I  could  not  keep  hold  of  some  sup 
port,  I  was  lost.  My  office  was  my  support.  The 
line  of  good-will  which  I  grasped,  I  was  buoyed  up 
by.  If  others'  patience  gave  out,  they  never  told  me, 
and  I  knew  it  not.  If  God  be  as  considerate  as  man 
and  woman,  there  is  nothing  to  fear. 

In  my  enforced  vacation,  I  wrote  a  dozen  discourses, 
as  an  anxious  squirrel  lays  up  nuts  for  winter  in  his 
nest.  I  have  scarce  looked  at  them  since.  Thank 
God  not  for  ease,  but  for  work  !  Complaint  of  labor, 
in  mill,  shop,  trench,  or  dock?  The  privilege  is  to 
toil.  If  I  can  do  it  any  way,  —  at  desk  or  tackle, 
with  hammer  or  pen,  —  my  neighbors  may  have  all 
the  play.  I  had  envied  the  dogs  in  Jacksonville  that, 
as  I  sat  tired  on  some  door-stone,  licked  the  sores  not 
of  my  flesh,  but  my  heart.  I  thank  those  dogs  !  My 
pain  is  mine,  my  property.  I  have  been  rich  in  it, 
made  a  large  investment  I  cannot  part  with,  and  no 
body  can  rob  me  of.  I  suppose  it  would  be  accounted 
no  charity  to  give  it  away.  But  it  pays  well.  It  has 
cancelled  self-love,  quenched  worldly  ambition,  signed 
and  sealed  me  to  sincerity,  offset  undue  love  of  life, 


356  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

made  the  grave  attractive,  assa}7ed  the  worth  of  many 
a  friendship,  wiped  out  worthless  securities  ;  reckoned 
up,  among  various  obligations,  the  bad  debts,  like 
notes  all  have  held,  —  the  sums  not  worth  the  paper 
they  are  written  on,  —  and  left  a  great  remainder  on 
the  credit  side.  Be  sick  or  sad,  and  who  is  cruel  or 
kind  you  will  find  out  fast  enough  ! 

But,  partially  competent  again  in  body,  am  I  so  in 
mind?  Have  I  got  softening  of  the  brain?  Are  my 
views  infidel  and  unsound  ?  I  have  refused  to  swear 
by  any  words  or  symbols  of  sect.  Ecclesiastical 
independence,  absolute  freedom  of  thought,  —  have  I 
by  these  wasted  my  Lord's  goods?  Long  accounted 
a  poor  sort  of  believer,  sometimes  denied  entrance  to 
Unitarian  or  Universalist  pulpits,  given  to  understand 
that  religious  organs  w^ould  not  welcome  contributions 
from  my  pen,  —  if  I  am  now  invited  to  write,  and 
find  myself  unexpectedly  no  outcast  from  either  wing, 
in  full  communion  of  good-will  with  Radical  and  Con 
servative  schools,  I  take  it  as  a  sign  of  the  advance  of 
ideas  in  Theology.  I  would  help  both  sides  with 
what  is  true  in  either,  but  commit  myself  to  none. 
The  trifling  touch  of  martyrdom,  the  little  taste  of 
excommunication,  has  been  to  me  no  injury,  but  a 
real  treat.  I  early  discovered  that  reputation,  popu 
larity  for  actor  or  preacher,  so  far  from  being  a  thing 
to  be  seized  or  coveted,  is  the  chief  danger,  and  almost 
inevitable  harm.  When  David  said,  "  I  am  small  and 
despised,"  did  he  reflect  but  for  that  he  would  never 
have  written  his  psalm  ?  It  is  a  great  blessing  to  be 
obscure  and  unnoticed,  not  run  after  or  asked  to  speak 
on  platforms,  to  pray  on  great  occasions,  or  say  grace 


EXPERIENCE.  357 

at  public  tables.  "  I  am  nobody,"  said  a  good  woman, 
after  telling  me  what  she  thought.  —  "  Is  it,"  I  an 
swered,  "because  you  are  all  spirit?"  It  is  very 
good  to  be  no  body,  and  go  down  into  this  cavern  of 
nothingness,  where  no  human  favor  follows,  and  love 
of  approbation  cannot  breathe.  Does  not  the  miner 
get  his  treasure  out  of  the  rayless  bowels  of  the  earth, 
as  the  diver  fetches  up  pearls,  and  ingots  of  sunken 
ships,  from  airless  depths  where  no  lungs  but  his  could 
hold  their  own  ?  So  spiritual  riches  are  drawn  out  of 
the  humiliations  where  mortal  vanity  dies,  and  nought 
but  irrepressible  persuasion  can  survive.  Thus  we 
learn  the  Spirit  is  more  and  greater  than  any  form  of 
religion,  superior  to  and  including  Christianity,  using 
it  as  prime  minister. 

Of  this  teaching,  the  test  is  the  opposition  it  waxes 
through,  like  the  day-star.  Its  seal  is  the  sickness  and 
grief  it  suffices  for.  Its  demonstration  is  in  souls  con 
tent  with  information  from  that  secret  tongue  all  scrip 
tures  are  but  sentences  of,  dropped  by  the  way,  and,  like 
your  conversation  of  yesterday,  forgot  in  new  calls  ! 
From  everlasting  to  everlasting  its  speech  of  instruc 
tion  and  consolation.  God's  accessibility  to  man  and 
man's  to  God  is  all.  The  explosion  of  the  old  dogma 
of  verbal  inspiration,  falling  before  geology  like  Metz 
and  Strasbourg  at  the  tread  of  the  German  hosts,  drives 
us  from  the  letter  that  killeth,  to  refuge  in  the  pavil 
ion  of  Real  Presence.  The  miracle  to  which  study 
turns  all  creation  dwarfs  special  wonders.  The  proof 
of  one  God  appears  not  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis, 
but  in  the  style  of  Nature  graven  on  pages  of  rock 
and  in  tables  of  the  heart.  It  is  not  made  of  meta- 


35$  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

physic  star-dust,  like  the  solar  system  of  nebulae,  but 
inborn.  The  depth  saith,  It  is  not  in  me  ;  and  the  sea 
saith,  It  is  not  with  me  ;  but  God  knoweth  the  place 
of  wisdom.  The  evidence  of  immortality  rises  in  our 
consciousness  of  qualities  that  cannot  perish,  of  whose 
endurance  no  resurrection  is  more  than  a  sign.  Can 
science,  groping  among  things  ponderable  or  impon 
derable  in  its  scales,  grub  up  any  demonstration  apart 
from  that  con-science  which  is  its  own  head  and  king? 
The  Church  I  rejoice  in  is  aloof  from  strife,  — a  step 
ping-stone  between  contending  sects,  and  across  the 
wildly  running  stream  of  controversy. 

But  these  themes  may  be  dwelt  upon  too  much,  to 
the  sacrifice  of  health  !  To  this  judgment  I  demur. 
Whatever  injury  may  arise  from  imprudent  habit  or 
undue  sensibility,  honed  like  a  razor  by  social  duties,  I 
impute  none  to  an  over-wrought  intellect,  least  of  all  to 
the  particular  line  of  investigation  pursued,  or  the  con 
clusions  reached.  Free-thinking  has  odium  enough 
to  bear,  without  being  made  the  scapegoat  of  private 
infirmities.  When  I  have  had  to  contrive  all  sorts  of 
ways,  —  gazing  into  shop-windows,  perusing  the  pan 
orama  of  faces  unrolling  on  the  high-way,  riding  in 
cars,  lifting  in  gymnasiums,  rowing  in  boats,  looking 
at  pictures,  doing  mechanical  jobs  about  the  house, 
and  falling  so  low  as  to  play  backgammon,  to  get  along 
and  make  the  day  pass  ;  when  time  became  the  pil 
lory  I  stood  in,  not  the  chariot  I  was  borne  by,  and  an 
hour  was  a  heavy  thing  for  me  to  carrv  ;  —  how  amus 
ing  to  be  told,  "  Don't  work  too  hard,  but  rest !  These 
ingenious  investigations  are  doing  you  or  anybody  no 
good."  As  Horatio  said  to  Hamlet,  it  was  hinted  to  me, 


EXPERIENCE.  359 

"  'Twere  to  consider  too  curiously, 
To  consider  so." 

Alas !  not  work,  but  to  be  forced  to  strike  work,  is 
what  kills.  I  was  dying  in  the  Sahara  of  a  barren 
brain,  starving  for  want  of  bread  from  the  mouth  of 
God.  Duty  is  restoration.  It  makes  the  desert  in 
us  blossom  as  the  rose.  Is  this  but  a  fond  fancy  of 
returning  faculty,  when  the  actual  power  is  gone? 
As  Nature  hides  ruins  with  moss,  she  may  conceal  the 
inward  ruin  of  men  growing  in  years  with  an  illusion 
of  freshness  and  wonted  strength.  The  hunter  leaves 
the  hollow  tree  he  has  rifled  of  its  honey :  people  will 
not  resort  to  us  for  knowledge,  when  no  more  sweet 
ness  is  left  in  this  hive  of  the  brain,  or  only  some 
whimsical,  solitary  bee,  in  the  shape  of  an  odd  notion, 
buzzes  in  the  bonnet  of  one's  head.  There  is  not 
much  more  music  in  him  :  he  is  getting  old,  and  rides 
his  hobby  !  Is  that  hobby  an  eternal  idea,  deserving  a 
better  name  ?  Has  the  minister  any  thing  more  to 
say  ?  Affection,  however  tender,  will  not  draw  people 
to  the  failing  voice,  on  whose  resources  of  vital  vigor 
they  once  hung.  /  have  nothing  to  say  to  gather  a 
throng.  What  the  multitude  follow,  I  cannot  furnish  ; 
for  I  do  not  follow  it  myself.  Where  it  is  afforded,  I 
could  not,  save  as  a  task,  go  to  meeting.  When  I  see 
by  what  cheap  gifts  the  masses  of  men  are  sum 
moned  ;  how  even  the  Liberal  Church  is  led  not  by 
its  wisest,  but  some  of  its  shallowest  men  ;  when,  in 
what  is  vulgarly  considered  eloquence,  I  note  the 
violence,  as  of  a  deafening  gun,  while  those  whose 
accents  thrill  me  have  no  wide  hearing,  —  then  I 
ponder  the  truth  of  Christ's  text  of  the  broad  and 


360  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

narrow  way.  The  multitude  ran  after  him  not  for 
doctrine  or  miracle,  but  for  the  loaves.  Said  a  maga 
zine  editor :  "  I  could  improve  my  articles  fifty  per 
cent,  and  diminish  my  subscription  list  at  the  same 
rate."  You  can  fill  your  pews,  as  you  can  your  pock 
ets,  with  what  would  never  fill  or  feed,  but  only  make 
lean,  your  souls.  Do  I  cheapen  others'  gifts  to  chant 
my  own  wares?  I  value  captivating  qualities,  if 
solidity  go  along  with  show.  Be  fascinated,  if  you 
can  be  saved  !  But  take  some  organ  of  principle,  not 
a  compromiser  who  can  play  well,  using  an  audience 
as  the  instrument  to  accompany  the  tones  with  which 
he  voices  his  own  love  of  influence  or  ambition  of  fame  ! 
A  minister  no  more  than  any  other  man  can  thrive 
without  fellowship.  Self-sustaining  as  we  may  be, 
doubtless  they  keep  us  alive  who  persuade  us  we  are 
of  some  importance,  and  that  there  is  reason  for  us  to 
stay  yet  for  a  time  in  the  world.  So  Jesus  was  en 
couraged  by  Martha  and  Mary,  by  Lazarus  and  John, 
and  all  those  common  people  who  heard  him  gladly, 
because  they  had  more  sense  than  the  deaf  Pharisee 
or  Scribe. 

Sickness  is  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of.  Somebody 
has  blundered !  The  ignominious  egotism,  to  which 
no  reader  will  suppose  vanity  could  tempt,  may  have 
value  of  testimony,  especially  as  regards  health.  "  My 
child  is  prostrate,"  said  one  :  "  what  has  cured  you?" 
The  answer  is,  perpetual  open  air,  with  its  slow 
uplifting  of  the  body,  like  the  Spirit's  of  the  soul. 
Nature,  and  no  man,  is  the  resurrection  doctor.  The 
roof  and  the  furnace  are  our  foes.  Embrace  Nature, 
and  she  will  befriend  you.  The  earth  is  the  Lord's. 


EXPERIENCE.  361 

We  must  respect  it  in  us  and  out  of  us,  or  it  will  take 
its  revenge,  and  resolve  us  from  this  sensitive  frame 
into  itself. 

But  the  moral  relief  is  not  less  signal.  Have  you 
suffered  any  grief,  calamity,  disappointment,  or  treach 
ery,  through  whose  wound  from  a  falsely  trusted  hand 
your  life  threatens  to  bleed  away  ?  Take  it  with  you 
to  the  temple,  the  house  of  God,  which  he  makes  of 
beauty  and  strength,  without  hands  ;  and  you  will  soon 
find  you  have  left  it  behind.  My  Judas  did  not  go 
with  me  into  the  woods,  and  I  could  not  discover  my 
sorrow  on  the  sea.  The  dust  of  the  ground  stanched 
my  stabs ;  the  rippling  air  cooled  the  fever  of  my 
mind,  and  the  chasing  waves  bore  off  every  trouble 
faster  than  the  sailing  ships.  What  power,  without 
intruding,  entered  so  deep? 

The  elements  are  the  nurses,  too,  of  faith.  When 
my  life  was  fading  away,  I  took  my  companion  with 
me  to  the  beach  ;  and,  as  the  billows  rolled  and  re 
tired,  and  the  sandy  channels  creased  themselves  every 
moment  anew,  I  said  to  him  what  I  here  repeat,  that 
no  miracle  or  prophecy,  no  ancient  promise  or  written 
text,  but  the  trust  in  God  coming  to  the  heart  in  a 
whisper  from  his  work,  is  my  token  of  immortality. 


XVI. 

HOPE. 

A  PERFECT  human  spirit  would  have  no  argu- 
-f^-  ment  about  a  future  lot.  Evidences  of  immor 
tality  could  be  no  more  sought  by  it  than  by  an  angel. 
When  we  project  our  thought  to  the  place  in  the 
ground  where  our  flesh  shall  He,  or  query  what  is  for 
us  beyond,  we  have  fallen  from  grace  and  lost  the 
everlasting  present  of  duty  and  joy.  God  might  as 
well  doubt  his  continuance  as  we  ours,  when  in  com 
munion  with  him.  But  this  height  is  so  rare  and 
momentary  in  the  best  souls,  the  question  of  destiny 
cannot  be  escaped.  The  boy  I  met,  crying  because 
he  did  not  know  where  his  father  was,  expressed  an 
anxiety  wide  as  the  world  about  vanished  friends.  No 
question  but  something,  every  thing  some  way.  must 
last.  The  knowledge  and  love  that  light  and  kindle 
these  chambers  of  the  breast  will  blaze  on.  But  will 
it  be  our  light  and  knowledge  when  the  walls  are 
taken  down?  or  will  the  occupant  be  crushed,  like 
those  islanders  of  St.  Thomas  under  the  ruins  the 
hurricane  made  of  their  abodes?  We  are  tenants  at 
will,  liable  any  moment  to  be  served  with  a  notice  to 
quit ;  living  some  of  us  in  old  mansions  which,  as  Mr. 


HOPE.  363 

Jefferson  said  of  himself,  the  owner  refuses  to  repair. 
What  a  spectacle  !  mankind  marching  up,  rank  after 
rank ;  each  generation,  as  it  crosses  the  stage,  taking 
a  look  at  the  magnificent  picture,  then  passing  on  to 
give  place  to  the  next ;  the  world  a  great  inn,  and 
every  soul  a  guest  at  the  table,  well  fed  and  waited  on, 
but  resigning  his  chair  to  the  coming  traveller ;  as  the 
Northman  said,  like  a  bird  flying  in  at  one  window, 
and  out  at  the  other,  —  from  darkness  to  darkness. 
As  a  visitor  of  Titian's  paintings  said,  it  seems  as 
if  we  were  the  shadows.  Is  matter  solid,  and  spirit 
the  reflection  it  casts?  That  is  an  absurdity  to 
thought. 

But  what  proof  of  immortality?  None,  we  must 
confess,  but  the  hope.  Elijah's  ascension  in  the 
chariot  of  fire,  if  such  a  spectacle  astonished  Elisha  ; 
Enoch's  translation,  if  God  took  him,  sending  no  angel 
of  death  ;  Christ's  raising  of  Lazarus,  or  his  own  resur 
rection,  —  were  no  assurance.  I  see  many  persons 
counted  worthy  of  things  I  do  not  attain  ;  and  some 
of  the  ancients  held  to  the  immortality  of  great  souls, 
but  not  of  common  people.  The  ghosts,  which  my 
friends  the  Spiritualists  tell  me  of,  do  not  show  them 
selves  to  me  ;  and,  if  they  did,  they  might  cross  where 
I  should  slip. 

I  fall  back  on  my  Hope.  No  demonstration,  —  only 
a  hope?  That  is  all  ;  but  what  is  that?  By  whom  is 
that  candle  lit  that  sends  its  beams  so  far?  Who  put 
it  into  my  head  that  I  am  going  to  outlive  my  body, 
outshine  the  stars  with  my  eyes,  and  be  when  the 
heavens  are  no  more?  No  mortal  did  it,  I  did  it  not 
myself.  What  hand  dropped  in  the  human  bosom  the 


364  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

seed  of  this  blossom  of  faith,  fairer  than  from  the  sod 
of  any  sepulchre?  My  Hope  is  my  argument.  It  is 
a  note  of  hand  which  needs  no  indorser,  which  the 
drawer  will  pay  though  the  name  of  never  a  prophet 
were  written  on  the  back.  My  constitution  to  aspire 
to  endless  being  is  evidence  which  no  miracle  can 
strengthen.  It  is  a  prophecy  Job  or  Jesus  cannot  add 
to,  though  their  lamp  carried  through  the  inward  crypts 
help  me  to  read  the  Maker's  record.  Make  out  hope 
as  part  of  your  nature,  —  no  accident  or  whim,  but  an 
angel  He  despatched,  —  and  the  case  is  won.  A  man 
is  indicted  at  the  law  for  exciting  expectations  he  did 
not  fulfil.  That  is  a  crime  God  does  not  commit.  I 
saw  the  remains  of  a  dear  mother  borne  to  their  rest. 
Silently  the  coffin  was  lowered.  No  gravel  from 
sexton's  spade  rattled  on  the  lid.  No  burial-service 
was  said  at  the  grave.  Heaps  of  flowers  from  hands 
of  mourning  friends  dropped  after,  with  showers  of 
tears  to  keep  them  alive  a  little  longer  above  the  more 
precious  human  flower  fading  away.  Hope  soared 
over-head  to  say,  only  the  broken  vase  where  it  had 
bloomed  was  there,  like  that  which,  when  you  trans 
plant,  you  cast  away.  The  real  flower  was  in  an 
other  garden.  A  deceiver,  a  lying  spirit  is  it,  sent 
only  to  tantalize,  torment,  and  disappoint?  Then 
talk  no  longer  of  the  God  of  hope,  but  let  Deity  and 
immortality  go  together,  and  introduce  a  new  worship 
of  the  demon  of  despair. 

Hope  is  the  parent  of  faith.  I  believe  in  the  Heaven 
I  am  made  to  forecast,  whose  horoscope  no  human 
hand  constructed.  Marius  the  Roman  general  medi 
tates  among  the  ruins  of  Carthage.  Amid  what 


HOPE.  365 

wrecks  human  hope  will  sit!  The  soul,  distressed 
and  afflicted,  impoverished  and  bereaved,  yet  never 
surrenders,  but  yearns  and  longs  and  anticipates  still. 
God  cannot  shake  it  off,  smite  and  buffet  it  as  he  will. 
It  takes  sides  with  him  against  itself.  David  from 
his  depths  cries  out,  u  It  is  good  that  I  have  been 
afflicted  ; "  and  in  an  old  Bible  I  have  read  the  pen 
cilling  of  one  in  sore  grief  against  his  text :  "  With 
my  whole  heart  I  acknowledge  this."  What  is  it  that 
accepts  misery  from  the  Most  High,  defends  the  Provi 
dence  that  inflicts  its  woes,  espouses  its  chastiser*s 
cause,  purges  itself  in  the  pit  of  its  misery  of  all  con 
tempt  of  his  commands,  and  makes  its  agonies  the 
beams  and  rafters  of  the  triumph  it  builds?  It  is  an 
immortal  principle.  It  is  an  indestructible  essence. 
It  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  Divinity  it  adores.  It  can 
no  more  die  than  he  can.  It  needs  no  more  insurance 
of  life  than  its  author  does.  Prove  its  title?  It  is 
proof  itself  of  all  things  else.  It  is  substantive,  and 
every  thing  adjective  beside.  It  is  the  kingdom  all 
things  will  be  added  to.  "  My  mind  a  kingdom  is," 
pass  popedoms  and  empires  and  temporalities  as  they 
will. 

But  this  is  not  argument :  it  is  ecstasy.  What  is 
ecstasy?  An  uplifting  to  some  position  above  our 
usual  stand.  We  always  see  more,  as  we  get  up 
higher  on  a  tower  or  hill.  On  yonder  cape,  whose 
name  of  Ann  some  love  of  woman  gave,  I  have  been 
amazed  at  revelations  of  beauty,  from  rising  forty  or 
fifty  feet  into  the  air :  forests  in  the  dim  horizon, 
intervales  stretching  along  the  banks  of  streams,  and 
the  far-off  Atlantic  swell  and  roll  girdling  with  foam 


366  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  isles.  It  is  an  ecstasy  to  be  on  Mount  Washington 
or  Mont  Blanc  :  it  extends  the  view.  Some  years 
ago,  I  sailed  with  some  friends  to  pick  up  that  little 
pin  on  the  floor  of  the  deep, — the  island  of  Fayal. 
As  we  surmised  from  observations  of  the  sun  that  we 
were  nearing  the  latitude  where  it  is  laid  down,  there 
was  debate  whether  a  vague  cloudy  line  we  saw  in 
the  distance  was  land  or  mist.  But  a  great  surge 
tossing  the  vessel  brought  out  plainly  the  hump 
of  vineyards  washed  with  breakers  and  laced  with 
streams,  to  our  exclamation  of  unanimous  joy.  So 
from  the  surge  of  feeling  we  may  descry  the  heavenly 
shore,  hid  from  the  level  survey  of  common-place  life. 
It  is  no  halcyon,  but  a  stormy,  sea  that  lifts  us  to  the 
vision.  Not  on  the  bright  glassy  surface  of  our  pros 
perity,  but  on  the  sullen,  heaving  tide  of  sorrow,  shall 
we  behold  the  port  we  would  make.  Gray  weather 
softens  the  landscape,  and  assists  the  sight.  It  was 
said  of  England,  she  imagines  she  sees  further  on 
a  cloudy,  threatening  day  than  with  all  clear.  So 
through  gloom  we  discern  glory.  The  storm  throws 
up  the  sea-weed  to  enrich  the  land.  Foul  weather 
is  needed  to  make  the  fair  fruitful.  The  bolt  that 
shatters  your  roof  directs  your  eye  upward.  The 
Almighty  blesses  us  with  menace  as  with  promise. 
When  our  children,  the  heirs  we  hoped  to  leave  our 
lodging  to,  are  carried  dead  from  its  door,  we  seek  a 
city  that  hath  foundations  ;  for  we,  too,  on  our  own 
thresholds  must  turn  our  back,  and,  able  to  walk  no 
more,  be  led  and  lowered  through  the  same  low  gate 
way. 

No  argument,  but  the  operation  of  the  human  mind, 


HOPE.  367 

the  divine  order  of  mortal  life  and  the  anticipation 
our  Creator  stands  sponsor  for,  —  of  immortality. 

But  the  trial  is  to  dissociate  the  spirit  from  the 
body ;  which  we  keep  unburied  long  as  we  can,  and 
but  for  the  offence  would  keep  for  ever.  Does  the 
objection  to  incremation  arise  from  an  apprehension 
that  from  the  deeper  hurt  of  fire  the  mortal  figure  may 
not  be  restored?  We  cannot  separate  our  idea  of 
spirit,  in  God  or  man,  from  form.  We  understand, 
the  form  must  pass.  But  it  has  been  the  tabernacle 
of  the  mind.  Some  celestial  form  corresponds  to  it, 
the  faintest  earthly  likeness  to  which  our  piety  would 
cherish,  till  Nature,  in  whose  lap  we  lay  it,  resolve  it 
into  mother  dust.  Something  of  the  familiar  appear 
ance  and  expression  of  our  beloved  must  go  up,  for 
us  to  know  them  by,  when  our  turn  comes.  Father 
Taylor  said,  when  told  he  was  going  among  the  an 
gels  :  "  Folks  better  than  angels."  But  angels  are 
folks.  An  aged  woman  objected  to  dying,  and  going 
where  she  was  not  acquainted.  Shall  we  not  find 
our  acquaintance  there  ? 

Beauty  and  power  reside  not  in  the  grosser  masses, 
but  the  finer  elements,  —  the  atoms  and  rays,  the 
undulations  and  electric  streams.  Whoever  credits 
God  as  being  can  trust  his  provision  of  fit  frame  for 
the  picture  and  living  image  of  his  creation,  when  the 
coarse  setting  of  clay  cracks  and  falls.  There  is  in 
death,  as  the  Psalmist  says,  a  shadow  ;  but  through 
that  alone  the  vista  shines.  Darkness  is  the  condi 
tion  of  lustre.  It  is  the  great  Painter's  background. 
Sadness  has  brightness  which  no  hilarity  can  show. 
There  is  a  flower,  though  growing  in  gloomy  places, 


368  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  most  brilliant  that  blossoms  in  our  woods,  which 
is  yet  not  gay,  —  not  for  merry-making.  No  maiden 
would  wear  it  in  her  hair  at  the  party  for  a  dance, 
or  use  it  for  a  wedding-favor,  or  put  it,  like  a  rose 
or  lily,  in  her  breast.  In  its  scarlet  or  crimson  leaf 
is  a  purple  tinge,  which  as  we  gaze  may  draw  a  tear. 
But  its  shape  and  color  outgrace  in  the  damp  pool  all 
the  bloom  of  the  garden.  Et  is  the  Cardinal  Flower, 
deserving  its  princely  name,  as  an  emblem  of  that 
hope  which  springs  so  splendid  in  the  shady  spots  of 
our  fortune  and  dim  recesses  of  the  heart. 

To  build  immortality  on  any  bodily  resurrection  is 
a  mistake.  The  ascension  of  Christ's  mortal  flesh  to 
eternal  glory,  what  a  monstrous  conception  which 
Unitarian  and  Trinitarian  still  hold,  with  the  logical 
inference  that  the  flesh  of  all  his  followers  out  of  cor 
ruption  shall  rise  !  In  Indiana,  an  aeronaut,  missing 
his  seat,  but  clinging  to  the  cords  of  his  balloon,  rose 
a  mile  into  the  air,  and  then,  exhausted,  fell  to  the 
ground.  All  bodily  rising  must  end  in  fall.  Not  so 
the  good  father,  not  so  the  dear  child,  will  rise.  Risen 
they  have,  and  gone  forth  ;  leaving,  like  Jesus,  the 
linen  garments,  as  the  roused  sleeper  does  his  bed 
clothes  behind. 

Meantime  how  fruitless  the  quarrel  about  dialectic 
names !  Intuition,  consciousness,  demonstration  and 
revelation,  are  the  correlation  of  one  proof,  and  end  in 
one  sense  of  continuance.  Science  bids  us  wait  for  it 
to  decide  if  the  future  life  be  a  fact.  But  that  "  fell 
serjeant,  death,"  will  not  wait.  We  cannot  postpone 
the  coffin  and  the  grave.  Shall  the  question  of  destiny 
lie  on  the  table  to  give  posterity  a  monopoly  of  solace  ? 


HOPE.  369 

Immortality  as  an  external  conclusion  were  but  a 
mortal  affair.  Its  definition  is  knowledge  inherent 
in  the  soul.  What  does  it  consist  in  but  our  com 
munity  with  God?  Were  our  nature  an  island,  or 
planet  rolling  outside,  no  space  could  be  certified  in 
his  eternity.  But  if  he  is  our  Common,  we  can  be 
conscious  of  him  as  the  lower  animals  are  of  us. 
When  the  birds  altered  the  style  of  their  nests  to 
accommodate  themselves  to  the  settlement  of  New 
England,  were  they  not  conscious  of  the  immigrants? 
uMy  horse  understands  me.  If  I  do  not  pat  him,  as 
usual,  when  I  go  into  the  barn,  he  is  mortified,  and 
hangs  his  head."  The  centazir  was  no  monster,  but 
a  cordial  figure  of  man  and  horse  in  sympathy.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  boundary.  Man  is  a  bridge. 
What  is  the  angel  that  stood  one  foot  on  the  sea  and 
one  on  the  land,  but  our  nature  arching  the  stream 
of  time,  and  uniting  the  cherub  with  the  beast ;  finding 
that  not  its  degradation,  but  dignity,  is  in  its  mighty 
span.  Our  family  tree  has  its  roots  in  the  ground  and 
boughs  in  the  heavens  ;  and  our  journey  is  no  declivity 
from  paradise,  but  up  from  the  savage  that  grovels 
to  the  seraph  that  sings.  Not  alone,  as  Wordsworth 
tells,  in  childhood  are  we 

"Moving  about  in  worlds  unrealized." 

Evermore,  as  grown  men,  we  converse  with  things 
that  pass  understanding. 

But,  if  conscious  of  divinity,  is  it  not  absurd  to  say 
conscious  of  immortality,  —  that  is,  of  some  thing  yet 
to  come?  I  answer:  we  are  conscious  of  durability 
as  a  quality,  if  not  of  future  duration  as  a  fact.  The 

24 


370  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

date  of  a  century-old  structure  is  implied  in  the  so 
lidity  of  the  work.  Why  is  a  gem  so  precious?  See 
the  greedy  diggers  rush  to  South  Africa  for  diamonds ! 
What  makes  for  a  diamond  the  rate  of  valuation? 
Not  only  the  splendor  and  the  brilliant  polish  the 
stone  will  take,  but  the  property  of  hardness,  to  hold 
for  ages  the  glittering  angles  unworn.  How  without 
stain  or  fracture  it  goes  from  one  crown  and  tiara  and 
empire  to  another,  while  king  and  queen  and  lord 
and  pope  pass !  It  is  drawn  sparkling  as  ever  from 
the  thousandth  ringer,  where  love  and  fealty  put  it, 
and  triumphs  over  the  ashes  of  corse  and  shroud,  ages 
without  end.  Shall  its  composition  and  not  the 
mind's  endure?  Is  our  perception  or  affection,  in 
identity  with  its  supernal  object,  of  texture  less  tough? 
In  my  bo}7hood  I  bought  a  silver  pencil ;  and,  looking 
at  the  screw,  asked  the  Swedenborgian  jeweller  if  it 
would  wear  out.  "Every  thing,"  he  said,  "material 
will."  But  will  ideas  and  principles?  or  the  soul  they 
are  espoused  by?  or  any  one  that  dies  for  them? 
u  Lasting  "  the  maker  calls  a  certain  kind  of  cloth  : 
what  is  everlasting?  Do  we  call  God  so  because  we 
have  applied  any  measure  to  him  ?  No  ;  but  because 
the  absoluteness  of  his  being  defies  time.  Sounding 
it,  we  lose  our  sinker  in  the  sea. 

What  gracious  human  sentiment  can  be  gauged? 
The  Danube,  forcing  its  way  through  the  hills,  hints 
the  flowing  charity  that  overcomes  and  wears  away 
our  flinty  creeds.  Mr.  Huxley  says,  it  is  not  the  land 
that  is  solid,  but  the  sea  holding  its  level,  while  that 
of  the  earth  shifts  every  year.  So  generous  feeling 
outlives  the  hardest  dogma.  Chronology  of  world  or 


HOPE.  37 1 

mind  follows  reality  like  a  waiter  or  shadow.  The 
French  name  a  man's  constitutional  limit  his  viability, 
as  Mr.  Weston's  is  the  time  he  can  keep  on  his  legs. 
What  is  the  viability  of  the  spirit?  Can  it  be  dead? 
It  were  a  contradiction  !  The  noble  mind  believes  in 
destiny,  and  admits  no  doom.  David  says,  God  will 
not  suffer  his  holy  one  to  see  corruption.  Goethe 
thinks  his  fidelity  entitles  him  to  another  body. 
Vaughan  feels, — 

"  Through  all  this  fleshly  dress, 
Bright  shoots  of  everlastingness." 

Jesus  declares,  "He  that  will  lose  his  life  shall  save 
it ;  "  and  tells  his  Father,  "  Now  come  I  to  thee." 
Friends,  taken  from  flood  or  fire,  are  found  locked  in 
each  other's  arms  :  was  that  quenched  or  burnt  which 
prompted  the  last  embrace?  The  scholar's  manu 
scripts  lie  like  white  thunder  round  him,  —  a  concen 
tric  battery  against  old  forts  of  error  and  sin  :  shall 
the  moral  cannoneer  perish  ?  The  spotless  boy  could 
remember  nothing  to  repent  of,  but  that  he  had  once 
whistled  on  the  stairs  when  his  grandmother  was 
sick:  is  that  tender  conscience  extinct?  The  heart 
will  bleed.  As  we  say  of  a  flesh  wound,  let  it  bleed, 
and  so  not  fester  !  But  its  love  abides. 

My  friend  says  he  cannot  credit  immortality  :  it  is 
too  wonderful.  I  tell  him  I  am  wonder-struck  here  ! 
Once  in,  nothing  can  amaze  me.  I  never  expect  to 
be  so  much  astonished  again,  though  all  the  hier 
archies  of  heaven  deploy  in  my  sight.  You  do  not 
believe?  Then  you  do  not.  It  is  a  sad  fact.  So 
much  the  worse  for  you  !  Drawing  the  hand  over  the 


372  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

skin  or  hair  in  some  persons  fetches  the  electric  spark. 
Will  some  wiseacre  doubt  the  statement,  because  it  is 
not  noticed  or  verified  in  other  persons?  Faith  is 
worth  somewhat  as  a  characteristic,  and  it  is  an  attri 
bute  of  the  noblest  natures,  —  of  Plato  and  Socrates, 
Newton  and  Milton,  Jesus  and  Paul,  —  and  to  be  re 
spected  as  of  so  much  value,  just  as  to  be  ductile  or 
volatile  is  an  attribute  of  price  in  any  mineral  or  metal. 

But  people  have  believed  all  sorts  of  things  :  witches, 
fairies,  apparitions,  demons,  possessions  and  obses 
sions  ;  visions  of  heaven  and  hell  and  distant  transac 
tions  on  earth,  like  the  Swedish  seer's ;  presentiments, 
premonitions,  and  spiritual  communications.  Belief 
is  nothing !  But,  I  ask,  from  no  beauty  did  all  these 
shadows  fall  ?  Justify  your  domestic  love,  and  I  will 
vindicate  my  divine  confidence.  Science  is  substantial. 
But  the  soul's  apprehension  of  rectitude  is  as  exact  as 
of  arithmetical  numbers  or  geometrical  lines. 

We  must,  say  some  Free  Religionists,  be  willing  to 
sacrifice  the  belief  in  God  and  Immortality  on  the 
altar  of  truth.  What  is  truth,  but  the  very  thing  you 
are  thus  ready,  if  required,  to  sacrifice  on  its  shrine ! 
If  God  or  the  soul  be  not  truth,  we  have  lost  the 
definition  ;  and,  in  default  of  worship  of  the  Spirit, 
we  make  an  idol  of  our  lexicon,  as  if  verity  and  Div 
inity  were  two  things.  There  are,  indeed,  inveterate 
or  congenital  deniers.  So  there  are  deaf-mutes,  per 
sons  born  blind,  and  men  with  no  music  in  their  souls. 
But  they  are  wanting  in  themselves  who  think  they 
have  measured  the  realm  of  reality  with  their  indi 
vidual  rod  and  chain.  Unbelief  is  lack  of  character. 
We  hear  how  noble  unbelievers  are.  A  sceptic  may 


HOPE.  373 

be  honest  and  kind  in  exchanges  and  tokens  of  friend 
ship  and  trade.  If  that  be  all,  let  one  cloth  cover 
body  and  soul !  But  if  aspiration  for  excellence  opens 
and  dawns  into  a  perfection,  whose  standard  dwarfs 
every  example  and  shames  all  biography,  faith  in 
opportunity  to  realize  our  ideal  is  part  of  virtue.  I 
have  heard  persons  profess  no  repugnance  to  annihila 
tion.  They  could  hardly  have  had  such  an  ideal. 
They  lacked  the  fiery  spark  in  Jesus  which  said,  u  I 
have  power  to  lay  down  my  life,  and  power  to  take  it 
again." 

Faith  seems,  in  the  best  men,  no  permanent  state, 
but  a  temporary  exaltation  or  shifting  mood.  But, 
though  the  clouds  close  in,  one  perception  of  the 
celestial  land  is,  for  evidence,  enough.  At  Rhigi  or 
Mount  Washington,  travellers  wait  for  weeks  for  a 
good  ascent.  Hundreds  toil  to  the  top,  in  the  rack 
and  haze,  to  miss  the  panorama  from  the  peak.  But 
against  all  failures,  holds  the  view  of  those  whose  eye 
sight  reaches  from  the  summit  to  the  shining  lake  or 
the  rolling  sea.  So,  when  a  friend,  going,  leaves  a 
track  of  light  across  the  dark  valley  and  an  open  door 
into  upper  rest,  the  impossibility,  in  your  vision,  of 
doubt  is  a  recollection  for  faith  to  live  on  for  ever. 

The  use  of  prophets  is  to  make  the  assurance  of 
such  beholding  accepted  by  the  unbelieving  world. 
"  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  :  "  of  every  burial- 
service,  from  the  Charles  to  the  Rhone,  such  words 
are  the  balm.  One  shaft  of  darkness  in  Gethsemane 
across  the  blazing  sun  proves  Jesus  to  be  a  man  and 
our  model.  "  Father,  forgive  them  ;  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do  : "  was  this  a  piece  of  sentimental 


374  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

acting,  from  a  deluded  tongue,  that  found  no  hospi 
table  ear?  I  can  entertain  your  scholarly  doubts 
about  manuscripts  and  versions,  and  your  scientific 
balking  at  a  blasted  fig-tree  or  multiplied  fishes  and 
loaves.  But  experience  was  mother  of  that  record ! 
Virtue  composed  that  story.  That  language  was  ut 
tered  and  heard.  In  some  blind  alley  or  Ishmaelite 
pit,  it  may  prove  our  register. 

Life  has  been  called  a  tragedy ;  but  triumph  is  the 
close.  No  dirge,  but  a  jubilee,  for  that  new  begin 
ning  out  of  the  seeming  end  !  Such  faith  is  born  of 
that  sympathetic  imagination  which  is  the  kindler 
of  love,  solvent  of  pride,  secret  door  of  inspiration, 
crown  of  beauty,  consummation  of  excellence,  com 
mon  benediction  and  boon.  When  Jesus  or  his  dis 
ciple  gives  up  life,  is  it  the  same  life  which  he  saves? 
No  :  sacrifice  of  the  meaner  feeds  the  grander  self. 
That  is  no  accident  for  death  to  sweep  away.  We 
have  all  some  acquaintance  with  that  glorious  stranger, 
which  has  warrant  in  us  to  survive  every  earthly  show. 

Is  this  a  purely  human  property,  no  spark  of  which 
glimmers  in  the  beast?  Although  the  parallelism  of 
the  human  and  animal  brain  hints  rudimentary  corre 
spondence  of  mind,  vast  difference  of  degree  seems 
tantamount  to  diversity  of  kind.  Yet  what  likenesses 
exist !  A  dog  defends  his  master's  property  with  his 
own  life  ;  yet  who  thinks  it  deserves  the  name  of  de 
votion?  Would  you  be  safe  from  the  mastiff  at  the 
gate?  let  him  see  you  speak  on  good  terms  with 
the  owner,  and  the  understanding  is  quick  as  light. 
The  walrus  intervenes  with  her  body  between  her 
offspring  and  the  hunter's  spear.  If  the  human 


HOPE.  375 

reaches  the  three  hundred  and  sixtieth,  the  animal  act 
touches,  at  least,  the  first  degree  of  the  same  round. 
If  there  are  bestial  hints  of  displays  like  Peter's  in 
the  dungeon,  Christ's  on  the  cross,  and  Brown's  on 
the  scaffold,  of  what  inconceivable  glories  are  these 
latter  the  germs  ?  Nor  need  we  search  for  them  afar. 
Do  we  not  see,  in  daily  experience,  what  nothing  in 
history  can  surpass?  "  Two  things,"  says  Kant,  "  are 
sublime,  —  conscience  and  the  stars."  I  lately  beheld 
a  soul  pass  with  majesty  before  which  the  heavens 
shrink  ;  when  dying  was  the  thing  to  do,  laying  down 
earthly  things  with  a  smile  so  sunny,  death  was  a  fly 
ing  shadow,  till  the  chamber  became  a  place  for  taber 
nacles.  There  was  a  babe  that  must  go  to  heaven  to 
know  its  mother,  and  the  mother  was  only  concerned 
nobody  should  think  her  babe  the.  cause  of  her  disease, 
and  could  serenely  say,  Beautiful  I  to  the  phantom 
from  the  tomb,  and  declare,  God  makes  no  mistake. 
Why  wonder  how  Stephen's  face  shone  as  it  were  an 
angel !  This  is  to  be  sick  and  die  to  some  purpose. 
Many  flowers  on  the  coffin  :  I  could  but  see  the  one 
in  it. 

We  ask  for  evidences  of  faith.  Faith  is  the  evi 
dence.  It  shows  how  the  habit  of  God's  presence 
heals  and  lifts  the  soul,  as  perpetual  atmosphere  does 
the  body.  He  is  our  native  air.  Whatever  thing  or 
person  beneath  him  we  rest  in  is  our  fetish.  In  the 
noblest  mortals,  beauty  comes  and  goes.  Be  any 
man's  devotee,  and  your  fondness  will  be  the  cloak 
of  self-seeking.  Our  idolatry  of  Jesus  makes  him  the 
frame  in  which  our  own  portrait  is  set !  The  only 
escape  from  selfish  conceit  is  spiritual  worship. 


376  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Faith  is  moral.  Character  is  the  office  where  it  is 
insured.  It  is  not  possible  to  think  of  any  one  as  dead 
who  has  shown  great  qualities.  Will'  it  be  an  inter 
polation  to  tell  of  a  nobleman  by  nature,  who  wras  for 
thirty  years  United  States  consul  at  Fayal  ?  How  vivid 
the  picture  to  me  stilt  of  his  coming  off  in  his  boat, 
on  the  rough  waters  of  the  harborless  Azores,  to  take 
to  his  hospitable  house  a  sea-worn  sick  man,  and  treat 
him  with  the  double  bounty  of  his  ample  board  and 
of  his  sympathy  with  free  thought  in  religion !  How 
the  proper  fruit  of  the  tree  of  liberty  appeared  in  his 
goodness  to  many  an  invalid  ;  in  his  open  purse  to  the 
poor  of  the  island  ;  in  his  equal  courtesy  to  humble 
Portuguese  or  proud  Englishman  ;  in  his  lavished  re 
sources  in  time  of  famine  ;  in  his  creation  for  the 
natives  of  a  profitable  trade  at  his  own  risk  ;  and  in 
the  beauty  his  art  added  to  Nature  in  his  almost  match 
less  garden,  set  over  volcanic  ground  in  the  azure  sea ! 
In  what  other  soil  must  there  not  be  food  and  blossom 
for  him  now?  Is  nothing  immortal  in  mortal  person 
and  name?  or  has  Dabney  found  King,  who  once 
found  him,  over-sea?  Are  the  believers  and  lovers  a 
joint-stock  company  that  have  failed?  and  is  all  our 
confidence  in  sacred  story  frail  as  the  printed  verse 
that  fades  or  is  blown  away?  No:  the  soul  but  rests 
on  some  brave  prophetic  sentence,  as  a  sea-bird  for  a 
moment  on  the  ground-swell,  till  ready  for  its  instinc 
tive  flight. 

Only  what  is  pure  is  immortal.  Love  lives,  and 
vengeance  dies.  Yonder  Somerville  hill  shows  how 
Romanist  and  Rationalist  agree  at  last  that  fine  houses, 
better  than  charred  and  mouldering  walls,  adorn  the 


HOPE.  377 

summit  where  the  Catholic  convent  was  burnt  by  a 
Protestant  mob.  I  shall  live  while  I  can  grow. 
Progress  is  the  law.  Why  reproach  me  for  not  saying 
still  what  I  said  thirty  years  ago?  Is  my  anchorage 
and  mortgage  in  the  past?  There  is  no  such  idolater 
as  memory.  Paul  is  anxious  especially  that  Timothy 
should  fetch  his  parchments ;  but  we  never  hear  of 
them  afterwards.  He  must  have  forgot  his  notes, 
after  all !  I  write  and  preach  my  sermons  with  heart 
beats  and  tears ;  and,  after  a  few  years,  send  them 
by  the  thousand,  without  compunction,  to  the  paper- 
mill.  Our  brother,  with  admirable  and  instructive 
industry,  expounds  the  great  systems  that  have  pre 
vailed  of  religious  belief.  A  step  forward  beyond 
them  all  must  we  not  take?  What  the  age  is  with 
child  of,  who  in  words  shall  tell  ?  But  the  Jews  had 
no  monopoly  of  messiahs :  we,  too,  ever  expect  a 
Saviour's  birth.  We  cannot  abide  in  any  letter  or 
rite.  Does  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  worship 
the  flag,  or  the  liberty  and  reunion  it  means? 

But  the  executive  department  must  not  be  over 
looked.  We  cannot  stop  with  vision.  Not  only  the 
discoverer,  the  organizer  too  of  principles  deserves 
our  honor  ;  and  the  seer  waits  on  the  reformer.  How 
secure  unity  without  compromise,  and  co-action  with 
out  coercion?  We  would  get  the  flock  along,  and 
keep  the  flock  together.  This  is  the  problem  for  the 
church,  as  it  was  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  shepherd  of 
States.  No  Radicalism  alone  can  solve  it.  It  requires 
consummate  wisdom  combined  with  clear  sight.  On 
ethics  of  concession  we  subsist.  We  would  not  use 
what  a  statesman  called  his  foolometer.  Yet  a  com- 


37  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

pensation  pendulum  keeps  the  best  time  ;  and  truth 
for  us  is  not  absolute,  but  a  relation.  It  is  an  atone 
ment  of  opposites.  It  is  a  reduction  of  discords 
to  harmony.  It  is  fulfilment  of  those  conditions  of 
social  solidarity  by  which  men  cohere  and  move  on. 
Yet  the  honest  word  is  a  main  factor,  —  a  term  that 
in  the  sum  of  human  welfare  never  disappears.  It 
is  everlasting,  —  finished  in  no  book. 

Utterance,  as  unreserved  as  any  Indian  eloquence, 
is  among  the  grounds  of  that  hope  which  regards  not 
only  individual  persistence,  but  the  prospects  of  man 
kind.  Our  definition  of  immortality  runs  on  the  line 
of  earthly  fortunes,  and  is  not  restricted  to  a  heavenly 
bliss.  Whatever  notions  cannot  be  converted  to  prac 
tical  benefit,  with  a  smile  let  us  leave.  The  brain  in 
some  brings  forth  empty  wind.  It  is  a  bank  that 
passes  its  dividend,  or  declares  one  not  of  sterling 
value,  but  worthless  stock.  Yet  let  us  be  slow  to  pro 
nounce  any  speculation  barren !  In  a  ship-yard  the 
straight  timber  is  good  for  masts  and  yards ;  but 
the  crooked  serves  for  knees  and  joints,  and  many  a 
stick  lies  for  years  before  it  comes  into  play.  Thought, 
fresh  as  it  is  free,  is  not  only  building  material,  but 
motive  power.  How  many  factories  buzz  and  spin 
in  Great  Britain  to  contribute  tools  for  every  useful 
art  wider  than  her  drum-beat  round  the  globe  !  But 
the  realm  fears  the  giving  out  of  her  coal-beds.  Then 
how  mill  and  maker,  pilot  and  steamer,  would  be  at  a 
loss  !  The  master  with  sailing  directions  for  the  ship 
of  Union,  which  Longfellow  sings,  and  the  stoker  at 
the  moral  furnace,  would  find  their  occupation  gone, 
should  the  mines  of  wisdom  fail,  or  cease  to  be 


HOPE.  379 

wrought    with    new    yield    for    the    need    of    every 
year. 

The  assumption  that  our  precedents  suffice,  —  that 
all  truth  is  laid  down,  and  we  have  but  to  go  to  the 
huge  cellar  of  past  revelation  for  food  and  fuel  to  feed 
and  warm  all  generations  "  to  the  last  syllable  of  re 
corded  time,"  —  the  exigencies  of  society  perpetually 
refute.  The  Bible  is  a  mighty  bin  ;  but  it  gives  out, 
and  we  are  forced  to  resort  to  new  growth.  I  re 
cited  to  a  reverent  church  Paul's  chapter  to  the  Cor 
inthians  on  the  relations  of  men  and  women.  In  a 
quite  different  way  from  Christ's  hearers,  they  were 
astonished  at  the  doctrine.  Some  admired  rny  cour 
age  ;  some  suspected  irony  ;  and  some  said  the  minister 
might  have  made  a  better  selection.  But  the  apostle 
meant  well  enough  !  Corinth,  with  all  its  Greek  pol 
ish,  was  a  loose  place.  Men  kept  their  hats  on  in 
meeting,  and  got  drunk  at  the  Lord's  Supper ;  while 
women  took  off  their  bonnets,  and  let  down  their 
hair.  Paul  acted  as  police.  The  absurdity  is,  on  the 
ground  of  verbal  inspiration,  to  make  his  text  an  ever 
lasting  canon,  when  the  reasons  are  so  shallow  ;  his 
major  premise  being  but  the  old  fable  of  woman's 
formation  from  the  man,  whom  anatomy  finds  never 
to  have  missed  the  rib  out  of  which  she  was  made  ! 
What  shall  we  say  of  his  not  suffering  a  woman  to 
teach,  when  women  are  the  best  teachers  in  all  the 
Sunday  schools  in  Christendom  ?  Would  not  some 
very  orthodox  and  conservative  folk  be  discomposed, 
if  his  decrees  about  long  hair  in  men,  and  plaited 
hair,  pearls,  .gold,  and  costly  array  in  women,  were 
enforced  by  beadles  on  the  spot  in  a  religious  com- 


380  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

pany,  like  a  prohibitory  law,  or  Louis  Napoleon's  or 
ders,  by  his  instruments  in  the  coup  d'etat?  The 
executives  would  have  their  hands  full,  and  find  them 
selves  in  business,  so  shearing  either  Episcopal  or 
Methodist  flocks! 

Modern  science,  scholarship,  and  common  sense 
command  that  the  Bible  be  criticised  as  well  as  ex 
plained.  Does  it  hold  so  many  rations,  one  for  every 
day,  —  as  the  frontier-woman  seemed  to  think,  when 
she  told  the  colporteur  she  did  not  know  she  was  so 
near  out  of  it,  bringing  to  the  door  a  torn  leaf.  No  : 
there  must  be  more  Bible,  and  better  than  some  of 
that  we  have  !  The  Romanists,  wiser  than  the  Protest 
ants,  affirm  that  the  truth  within  sacred  lids  needs  the 
supplement  of  the  living  voice  of  the  Church,  from 
which  it  came. 

The  worst  of  bibliolatry  is  its  strain  on  clerical 
candor ;  for  no  man  or  minister,  however  he  pretend, 
can  practise  as  he  preaches  any  theory  of  the  omnis 
cience  of  the  written  word.  The  case  is  kept  on  foot 
by  the  old  policy,  of  one  doctrine  of  the  philosopher 
for  the  people,  and  another  for  his  peers,  —  one  view 
in  the  study,  and  a  different  in  the  desk  ;  on  epistolary 
authority,  meat  for  men,  and  milk  for  babes.  How 
condescending,  in  educated  men,  to  say,  "  You  must 
give  according  to  men's  capacity  to  receive!"  So 
we  might,  were  men  and  women  infants  in  these 
days.  But  many  of  them,  reading  and  reflecting, 
know  more  than  the  priests.  The  minister  has  not 
before  him  so  many  narrow-necked  bottles,  into  which 
to  pour  a  little  of  his  wondrous  information  with  care. 
He  will  not  find  his  best  thoughts  so  premature  as  he 


HOPE.  381 

fears !  The  plate  is  prepared  for  his  finest  photo 
graphy.  His  locomotive  is  not  so  much  ahead  of  the 
train.  We  will  excuse  him  from  the  benevolent  con 
ceit  that  he  has  convictions  about  the  nature  of  God 
or  origin  of  man,  for  which  the  community  of  intelli 
gence,  that  bears  him  up  as  a  crest-wave  on  a  ground- 
swell,  is  not  ready. 

The  teacher's  is  a  threefold  qualification,  —  of 
intelligence,  sincerity,  and  love.  But  how  is  it  pos 
sible  to  hold  as  final  the  holy  writ  that  allows  slavery, 
polygamy,  retaliatory  capital  punishment,  fighting  be 
cause  God  is  a  man  of  war,  or  deep  draughts  of  mirac 
ulous  wine  at  a  wedding ;  and  decrees  subjection  of 
woman  to  man,  because  of  his  being  as  superior  to 
her,  as  Christ  to  a  common  person,  or  God  to  Christ? 
The  letter  is  a  block,  drawback,  and  drag  to  the  most 
needful  reforms.  How  much  wire-drawn  subtilty 
is  used  to  prove  that  it  confines  and  exhausts  the 
spirit  nevertheless !  We  lie  for  our  sect,  for  our 
party,  despite  the  prophetic  warning  not  to  speak 
deceitfully  for  God  or  what  we  account  his  word. 
Woman's  rights  men  and  women,  with  disingenuous 
ingenuity,  try  to  argue  the  hard  texts  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament  into  consistency  with  their  views. 
So  the  Northern  pulpit  labored  to  prove  that  Hebrew 
slavery  did  not  justify  American  or  any  other.  The 
advocates  of  abstinence  will  have  it  that  the  wine 
made  at  Cana  was  not  intoxicating ;  while  those  who 
consider  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  as  legal 
murder  explain  away  the  text  in  Genesis  from  a 
statute  to  a  circumstance  ;  and  the  non-resistants  balk 
at  Psalms  and  Chronicles,  and  have  to  make  a  piece 


382  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  rhetoric,  in  Christ's  mouth,  of  the  two  swords 
unsheathed  and  shining  in  his  eyes  !  When  a  woman 
undertook  to  speak  in  a  late  Prohibitory  Convention, 
in  Boston,  the  Baptist  Boanerges  of  the  cause  resisted 
her  as  an  infidel.  Who  would  have  thought  Paul's 
verse  about  not  suffering  a  woman  to  teach  would, 
like  a  bomb-shell  of  long  range  over  land  and  sea,  fall 
and  explode  in  Tremont  Temple?  How  much  of  the 
blood  in  our  Civil  War  flowed  from  a  Southern  super 
stitious  ministry's  sincere  defence  of  the  system  of 
bondage  on  Scriptural  grounds  !  Ten  thousand  teach 
ers  were  not  pure  hypocrites.  Do  not  half  the  human 
race  likewise  suffer  prejudice  of  their  claims  to  the  use 
of  their  own  persons  and  property  and  the  exercise  of 
social  and  civil  rights? 

Doubtless  some  act  on  the  Jesuit  principle  of  reserve. 
Many  clergymen,  too  well  instructed  to  accept  the 
old  letter  as  decisive  of  the  new  questions,  and  fearing 
to  make  trouble  with  their  creeds  and  congregations, 
take  up  other  themes,  let  the  moot  points  go.  They  are 
guilty,  if  not  of  false  witness,  yet  of  the  crime  called 
suppression  of  the  truth.  "  I  am  very  careful,"  said 
a  preacher,  "  not  to  tell  any  lies."  So  he  avoided 
the  offence  of  being  a  Radical.  But  was  he  settled 
simply  not  to  tell  lies?  Did  he  keep  his  ordination 
oath  of  telling  the  whole  truth?  How  many  cowards 
there  are  in  the  priest's  order  of  Melchisedec,  be  they 
called  orthodox  or  liberal,  it  is  no  satisfaction,  but  a 
grief  and  shame  to  think. 

Only  one  position  is  tenable.  All  these  matters 
of  reform  which  stir  the  public  mind  at  the  pres 
ent  day,  however  illustrated  from  profane  or  sacred 


HOPE.  383 

history,  must  be  argued  on  their  own  merits  at  the 
tribunal  of  reason,  not  of  Moses  or  Paul.  I  am  not 
of  those  who  think  alcohol,  under  all  circumstances,  a 
poison,  and  never  a  medicine  ;  but  I  would  not  have 
the  extremists  in  Temperance  embarrassed  with  an 
ancient  miracle  and  a  text.  Debate  the  sumptuary 
law  in  the  modern  light,  and  God  defend  the  right ! 
What  hypocrisy  is  generated  otherwise !  At  a  great 
meeting  of  a  society  of  doctors,  many  years  ago,  the 
leader  and  president  got  a  unanimous  vote  that  every 
drop  of  ardent  spirits  was  in  the  human  system  a 
bane :  whereupon  one  member  rose  and  asked  if  they, 
all  preparing  medicines  with  alcohol,  were  not,  in  the 
extravagance  of  their  statement,  presenting  themselves 
as  a  pack  of  fools  and  knaves.  Water  is  put  for  wine 
on  some  communion-boards.  May  not  the  element  as 
well  be  dispensed  with,  when  it  comes  to  that?  A 
form  is  destroyed  when  it  is  changed.  How  else  can 
this  momentous  cause  of  Temperance  be  promoted 
than  with  Truth,  from  which  no  enterprise  of  phi 
lanthropy  will  bear  to  be  divorced?  But  all  Scripture 
is  not  truth.  So  from  such  as  find  no  deeper  basis, 
and  cannot  themselves  build  on  the  same  foundation 
with  apostles  and  prophets,  instead  of  building  on 
them,  we  have  abundance  of  double-dealing  and  spe 
cial  pleas.  The  Devil,  in  the  old  proverb,  can  quote 
Scripture  :  is  it  not  because  he  has  tried  his  hand  in 
making  some?  Surely,  cruelty  to  the  Canaanites  and 
oppression  of  the  children  of  Ham  were  among  his 
texts !  Had  our  construction  of  the  Book  but  anti 
quarian  interest,  we  might  let  men  sleep  in  their  prej 
udice.  But  it  touches  every  imminent  issue  and  live 


384  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

question  of  the  day.  The  pulpit's  sin  of  reservation 
is  a  projectile  of  pure  insult  to  the  people.  The  prince 
of  the  virtues  is  the  noble  apostle's  own,  —  to  speak 
•with  all  boldness  as  we  ought. 

The  old  theology  does  not  atone  for  its  gloom  by 
moral  effect.  Whatever  reason  it  had  for  being,  it  has 
for  now  ceasing  to  be.  Under  its  existing  frame  its 
heart  is  eaten  out.  It  is  what  Sherman  called  the 
South,  —  a  shell.  No  Genevan  or  Florentine  or 
Swedenborgian  or  Miltonic  genius  can  keep  hell  dis 
tinct  from  heaven,  or  the  Devil  as  a  rival  of  God.  It 
has  been  said  by  liberal  critics  that  a  grain  of  Cal 
vinism  does  not  hurt  the  flavor  of  the  bread,  and  that 
it  has  under  its  ugly  look  a  musical  soul.  It  sang 
once  of  civil  freedom,  which  has  nobler  minstrels 
now ;  but  not  a  note  any  longer  of  spiritual  truth. 
It  has  lost  its  voice  !  In  a  rude  age  it  made  God  felt 
as  an  iron  power ;  and  out  of  its  shadow  a  glory  came 
like  the  sunrise  from  the  storm-cloud  whose  spent  fury 
settles  in  the  East ;  but  the  Orient  for  the  coming  day 
is  a  more  generous  faith  that  absorbs  its  lurid  lustre, 
as  I  saw  the  ascending  sun  take  all  the  grim  and 
ruddy  pomp  out  of  the  vaporous  horizon  to  itself. 
Nursed  on  the  unadulterated  diet  of  the  New-England 
creed  fifty  years  ago,  may  one  not  be  a  better  witness 
than  an  observer  whose  cradle  lay  inside  the  liberal 
fold?  Imagination  is  quick  to  make  of  the  present 
writer  a  boy,  not  suffered  to  leave  the  close  parlor  on 
the  Sabbath,  though  sunshine  and  green  field  so  in 
vited  him  as  to  make  it  a  sore  prison,  —  save  to  walk 
straight  to  the  church,  whose  clamor  of  denounce 
ment,  without  one  gentle  strain  of  nature,  still  rings  in 


HOPE.  385 

his  ear.  Those  who  fainted  in  the  ill-ventilated 
building,  he  thought,  were  borne  out  to  be  judged. 
In  his  solitary  walks,  in  his  seventh  year,  he  had  be 
gun  to  hang  his  head  ;  and  remembers  how  for  hours 
he  would  repeat  the  one  sentence,  "  God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner;"  though  he  wondered  what  the  guilt 
was  that  should  forbid  him  to  lift  his  eyes  to  heaven, 
and  had  eclipsed  the  beauty  of  the  world. 

Too  much  has  been  put  between  the  soul  and  its 
Author.  Comfort  is  too  far  to  seek  in  Judasa.  We 
want  our  own  Immanuel,  God  with  us.  No  imported 
can  equal  an  indigenous  faith.  The  soul  in  its 
extremity  must  have  immediate  help.  No  circum 
locution  avails  like  the  direct  whisper.  Our  hope 
beyond  the  dead-line  is  no  letter,  promise,  miracle, 
or  bodily  rising,  but  trust  in  the  Power  that  made 
us.  If  my  life  is  of  no  consequence  to  him,  it  is  of 
none  to  me.  What  is  best,  he  will  do,  and  I  accept. 
No  ticket  of  vicarious  redeeming  in  my  hand,  no  self- 
salvation,  no  insurance  against  accidents  on  the  road ; 
but  such  acceptance  is  all  my  immortality, .present  and 
to  come.  The  property  is  his  to  reinvest  or  throw 
away.  This  is  the  rising  faith  with  Internationals  of 
the  Spirit !  The  ecclesiastic  bar  loses  its  terror.  Con 
science  is  a  tribunal  that  dispenses  better  justice.  The 
assizes  are  no  longer  remote,  beyond  the  sound  of 
trumpets  and  the  quickening  of  a  million  generations' 
dust.  The  Judge  standeth  at  the  door.  God's  bench 
is  the  human  mind.  When  the  consul  said  to  the 
Portuguese  priest,  "Why  do  you,  knowing  better, 
still  apply  the  Romish  scheme  ?  "  the  priest  answered, 
"  C'est  mon  metier,"  —  it  is  my  trade  !  But  religion, 

25 


386  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

as  a  business  and  function,  must  yield  to  vision  of  the 
fact. 

Every  thinker  has  his  prospect  of  improvement  for 
the  human  race.  We  make  our  prophetic  sketch.  So 
it  will  be,  we  say,  in  politics,  society,  worship,  or 
affairs  ;  "  but  we  shall  not  live  to  see  the  day  !  "  Dr. 
Franklin  wished  to  come  back,  after  some  ages,  and 
look  on  the  renovated  world.  Perhaps  he  does,  and 
we  shall,  in  a  way  unlike  his  fancy.  This  anticipa 
tion  of  earthly  progress  is  token  of  divine  destiny. 
Meantime  how  pleasant  to  contemplate  the  renewing 
force !  After  the  bitter  week,  that  had  brought  the 
earth  near  to  zero,  I  went  to  Gale's  Point,  on  the  coast. 
The  broad  harbor  between  the  headlands  was  frozen  to 
the  channel,  and  resisted  the  tide  that  crunched  against 
the  encroaching  ice.  Down  the  slope  of  the  land 
flowed  the  image  of  an  arrested  cataract  of  water, 
hard  as  the  congealed  masses  in  which  the  northern 
whalers  met  their  fate.  But  where  this  stiffened  tor 
rent  started  was  a  living  spring,  lifting  its  sandy 
columns  as  it  bubbled  noiseless  from  the  earth,  to  keep 
its  surface  soft  and  smooth  as  a  summer  breath.  It 
told  the  gentle,  resistless  persistence  of  a  higher  life 
than  its  own.  Death  is  before  us.  But  what  an 
advantage  for  them  who  have  it  behind  !  Their  posi 
tion  we  shall  find  no  marvel,  but  natural  as  the  dawn 
when  it  shall  become  ours. 

Meantime  let  us  discuss  radical  problems  without 
fear.  Religion  depends  not  on  the  institutions  she 
forms.  Were  all  bibles  and  churches  swept  away, 
she  would  spring  immortal ;  as  out  of  the  burnt  forests 
of  Wisconsin  time  is  bringing  other  trees,  perhaps  ot 


HOPE.  387 

nobler  growth.  Orthodoxy  must  show  us  better  fruit, 
in  our  neighbors  and  their  children,  before  the  de 
moralization  charged  on  Liberality  will  stir  any  alarm. 
Looking  back  at  the  long  line  in  my  own  Church,  how 
the  names  of  Hooper,  Mayhew,  Howard,  and  Lowell 
shine  to  signify  no  novelty  in  free  thought  and  inde 
pendent  speech  !  But  to  make  an  idol  even  of  liberty 
is  as  narrow  as  it  is  profane.  Let  our  inspiration  be 
wrought  into  the  social  body,  which  is  our  incarnate 
nature  and  common  flesh.  Every  talent  and  human 
element  we  need.  Great  expectations  should  they 
have,  who  number  scholars  like  Martineau  and  Hedge, 
organizers  like  Bellows  and  Hale,  and  mediators  like 
Collyer  and  Clarke.  There  may  be  room  for  whatever 
thoughts  are  here  repeated,  because  men  and  ideas  are 
alike  dear. 

All  powers,  in  all  ways,  however  diverse  or  con 
trary,  compose  the  resultant  harmony.  The  ground 
of  fellowship  is  reverence.  Fun  or  humor  to  make 
light  of  things  has  its  place  ;  but  a  mere  entertainer  is 
a  low  character.  I  thought  it  great  praise  when  my 
friend  called  Jared  Sparks  a  serious  man.  The  child 
in  Willis's  poem  is  "  tired  of  play ;  "  and  how  weary 
we  get  of  those  who  spoil  conversation  and  insult  our 
convictions  with  their  untimely  wit,  turn  on  our  talk 
the  jet  of  water  instead  of  flame,  or  would  make  fire 
works  for  amusement  of  all  the  light  and  heat  of  the 
soul ;  and,  when  the  dove  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  just 
hovering  to  light,  shoot  it  with  a  jest !  They  must 
worship,  who  would  commune.  Why  cannot  those 
two  persons  abide  each  other?  They  belong  to  the 
same  church,  neighborhood,  and  social  circle ;  they 


388  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

dress  with  equal  elegance  ;  they  sit  side  by  side  at  the 
concert  or  play ;  they  drive  hard  after  each  other  over 
the  fashionable  road,  but  cannot  set  their  horses  to 
gether.  What  is  the  foil  to  a  hundred  sympathies  of 
interest,  pursuit,  and  taste?  What  these  human  pith- 
balls  are  mutually  repelled  by  is  the  same  electricity 
of  self-conceit !  They  keep  each  other  at  such  a  re 
spectful  distance,  because  they  have  no  meeting-place 
in  God.  Swift  said  Addison  was  very  "  civil,"  after 
his  famous  satire  on  him  under  the  title  of  Atticus. 
What  can  have  alienated  your  old  friend?  Your 
vanity  or  his  !  Self-pronunciation  is  secession  :  ambi 
tion  to  lead  is  disunion.  Caesar  and  Antony,  Octavia 
and  Cleopatra,  could  not  inhabit  one  sphere.  How 
many  seek  to  king  or  queen  it,  to  set  the  fashion, 
captain  the  troop,  or  champion  the  ring,  like  the 
as  finely  dressed  and  feathered  cock  of  the  walk ! 
They  grind  each  other  to  pieces  with  identical  sharp 
corners,  that  can  find  no  counterpart,  and  are  walk 
ing  figures  of  irony  on  their  own  several  pretence ! 
Chanticleer  wishes  his  note  to  resound  without  reply. 
O  friends,  love  and  serve  together  the  Infinite  Being 
and  Beauty ;  and,  in  what  smooth  gear,  soft  as  a 
psalm,  you  would  run  !  "  Behold,  he  prayeth,"  was 
reason  enough  for  Ananias  to  visit  Saul,  or  Channing 
to  honor  Rammohan  Roy,  or  Dean  Stanley  to  em 
brace  Chtmder  Sen.  When  we  learn  that  Christ's 
ascension  was  a  daily  habit,  and  no  bodily  act,  we 
shall  understand  that  his  board  is  not  spread  for  a  pri 
vate  entertainment ;  and  none,  revering  his  character, 
can  by  any  master  of  ceremonies  be  driven  from  his 
feast.  The  Ideal,  that  floated  over  him,  can  lift  us 


HOPE.  389 

out  of  sight  of  all  outward  rising.  The  line  of  beauty, 
once  discovered,  is  discovered  for  ever  ;  and  how  he  kept 
that  faultless  curve  !  He  held  Nature  in  solution  as  a 
sea  of  love,  and  was  full  of  the  element  in  which  he 
moved.  It  is  enough  if  we  be  among  the  snowy- 
winged  comrades  in  his  convoy,  though  we  follow  in 
graceful  freedom,  and  no  rigid  lines,  the  flag-ship. 

Our  political  union  has  for  its  condition  some  honest 
reverence  and  loyalty,  not  any  uniform  faith.  Let 
Christians  cease  their  unchristian  clamor  to  name 
their  religion  in  the  Constitution !  God  and  Christ 
will  be  in  it,  unmentioned,  when  the  government  is 
just  to  black  and  white,  to  copper  Indian  and  yellow 
Chinese.  Equity  to  Jew  and  Mormon  shall  be  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Protection  of  atheist  and 
infidel  is  the  best  petition.  More  than  thirty  years 
ago,  I  was  blamed  for  signing  a  request  that  Abner 
Kneeland  should  not  be  punished  for  blasphemy.  A 
venerable  parishioner  said  it  was  the  first  mistake  his 
young  minister  had  made  ;  and  the  remark  came  to 
me  for  an  admonition  on  the  lips  of  a  distinguished 
counsellor,  afterwards  judge,  still  living,  but  not  dis 
posed  to  move  or  consider  such  a  bill  of  indictment 
now. 

Shall  you  fellowship  the  Radicals?  If  you  find  in 
them  that  reverence  which  is  the  root  of  sympathy  ! 
"  I  did  not  go  to  Theodore  Parker's  meeting,"  said 
one  ;  "  but  I  never  knew  one  that  did,  who  was  not 
zealous  for  good  works."  Over  the  coffin  of  a  reputed 
sceptic  that  heresiarch  said  :  "  O  God  !  if  he  doubted 
thy  being,  he  lived  thy  law."  "  We  must  have  larger 
contribution-boxes  in  our  great  society,"  I  heard  a 


39°  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

man  inform  the  sexton  ;  and  must  we  not,  of  our  com 
munion-board,  make  an  extension-table?  "I  am  a 
wide  liker,"  said  Allston,  when  somebody  disparaged 
pictures  of  a  style  different  from  his  own.  u  I  prefer 
Mozart  and  Beethoven  to  Schubert,"  remarked  one  to 
Perabo :  "  they  come  down  upon  us  with  such  an 
elephantine  tread."  The  pianist  replied  :  "  This  ele 
phant  is  just  as  big,  only  a  little  further  off!  "  A  French 
writer  tells  us :  "  Not  to  praise  warmly  is  a  sure  sign 
of  intellectual  mediocrity."  It  is  a  proof  of  irreligion, 
too.  Contumely  to  man  is  disrespect  for  God.  Ado 
ration  inspires  magnanimity.  An  English  hunter,  in 
Omaha,  coming  suddenly  upon  a  violet  peeping  out 
of  the  snow,  could  not  pluck  the  flower,  it  so  over 
came  him  with  thoughts  of  home.  Remembering  the 
homestead  we  all  belong  to,  we  shall  be  tender  to  our 
kind. 


XVII. 

IDEALITY. 

THE  idealist  we  count  impotent,  only  impressible 
as  a  photograph-plate  ;  prey  of  wandering  fancy. 
But  ideas  are  active  powers  to  revolutionize  and  re- 
Jbrm.  God  is  the  great  visionary?  enacting  his  thought 
in  every  stage  of  his  work.  A  late  French  writer 
holds  that  freedom  to  think  and  to  speak  implies  free 
dom  to  act  with  no  let  of  lawt  In  a  perfect  mind 
it^  does_._  But  God,  says  one,  is  the  only  being  who^ 
is  thoroughly  awake. .  All  men  are  somnambulists. 
Their  murder  and  theft,  lying  and  lust,  are  a  sort  of 
sleep-walking.  In  a  fine  sense,  Mr.  Choate's  defence 
of  the  famous  Tirrell  was  true.  But  we  share  with 
the  Creator  as  _we  open  our  eyes. 

First,  as  partners  in  making  the  world.     What  is 

the  earth  ?__    Not  so  much  crude  bulk,  finished  when 

God   rested  on  the   seventh   day.     Is  not  the  line  of 

/•steamers,  Pacific  railway,  telegraph  wire,  storm  signal, 

\mill  on  the  stream,  and  Mont  Cenis  or  Hoosac  tun- 

1  nel,  part  of  the  universe  as  much  as  Niagara,  the  Mer- 

Vrimac,   a    hill    in   Switzerland,  or  the   morning   star? 

is  a  picture  less  solid,  a  symphony  more  transient,  thant 

tree  or  rock  ?     "  The  works  of  God  are  great,"  said  an 


392  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

admirer  of  art,  "  but  the  works  of  man  are  wonderful ! " 
The  Supreme  Artist  left  his  sketch  for  his  children 
and  pupils  to  complete  ;  and  their  orderly  continuation 
is  as  good  as  his  beginning.  "  Is  your  lecture  done?" 
I  asked  my  friend.  "  Never,"  he  said.  So  with  Nature. 

But  in  a  deeper  sense  we  co-act  with  Deity.  Noth 
ing  is  what  it  is  in  itselfT  but  in  its  relation  to  every 
thing  else  ;  and  that  relation  is  ideal.  What  a_/alse 
notion,  that,  with  none  to  behold  it,  the  planet  would 
be  just  the  sameT  It  is  nought,  separate  from  sight. 
Could  all  that  lives  lie  down  in  one  mighty  sepulchre, 
no  constellation  would  shine  on  that  grave.  With 
out  perception,  no  light.  God  —  infinite  mind  —  said, 
"  Let  it  be  ;  "  but  human  intelligence  was  part  of  the 
fiat. 

This  is  no  hypothesis,  but  a  truth  in  which  imagina-_ 
tion  and  science  meet.  Has  matter  a  single  independent 
property?  It  looks,  feels,  smells,  tastes,  sounds,  so  we 
_say  ;  but  it  could  do  no  such  thing  without  reason  and 
the  sensitive  nerve.  The  secondary  qualities  —  form, 
color,  odor,  audibleness,  and  touch  —  we  all  allow  to 
be  a  spiritual  addition  to  the  outward  scene.  The  pri- 
mary  onestoo,  weight  and  extension,  supposed  in-_ 
herent  in  external  things,  are  but  part ;  the  intellect, 
counterpart  and  constituent ;  space  and  time,  modes  of 
understanding. 

If  the  elements  have  intrinsic,  why  such  shifting 
worth  ?  The  dog  looks  on  the  same  prospect  with  his 
master ;  the  lynx  and  vulture  have  a  keener  than  the 
hunter's  glance  ;  the  eagle  is  said  to  gaze  undazzled  on 
the  sun ;  beasts  and  birds  of  night  discern  and  find 
their  way  through  what  we  call  pitch  dark.  What 


IDEALITY.  393 

but  some  new  chamber  in  the  brain  or  joint  in  the  spy 
glass  reveals  to  us,  in  the  common  house,  a  size  and 
store  hid  from  their  view  ?  To  our  ideality  it  expands 
into  manv  mansions.  To  their  sensuosity  it  contracts 
to  a  den  under  ground,  a  nest  in  the  tree,  so  much  air 
to  sail  through,  or  so  many  holes  to  worry  their  game 
in.  How  low  Hamlet,  in  his  melancholy,  reduced 
the  sphere  he  so  grandly  described  !  But  to  the  hawk, 
what  but  a  barn-yard  is  the  land,  or  fish-pond  the  sea? 
Schopenhauer  makes  the  world  a  mental  projection  ; 
and  Wordsworth  says  the  glories  Nature  lures  us  with 
are  not  hers,  but  born  of  a  luminous  cloud  that  issues 
from  our  own  soul.  To  the  Bible-seers  she  waxes  old 
like  a  garment  to  be  folded  up,  and  flees  before  her 
King  to  find  no  place  ;  and  how  modern  philosophy 
verifies  ancient  poetry,  resolving  masses  and  particles, 
heaven  and  earth,  into  pure  force  !  But  that  such  con 
ceptions  ever  entered  the  head  of  any  animal  we  want 
proof.  I  noticed  a  setter  looking  through  a  car-win 
dow,  and  seeming  to  take  some  pleasure  in  surveying 
the  landscape  ;  but  his  ear  played  active  as  his  eye. 
and  I  queried  whether  he  observed  that  integrity  which 
is  beauty,  or  was  looking  after  his  natural  enemy,  and 
watching  if  aught  appeared  he  could  serve  his  master's 
sport  by  beating  the  field  to  start.  Without  spectator 
were  no  spectacle  fair  and  sublime.  The  mind  is  busy 
to  make  what  it  beholds.  What  signifies  calling  such 
doctrine  the  peculiarity  of  some  moon-struck  man? 
Nobody  so  practical  or  gross,  so  bent  on  his  crop,  grist, 
or  hoard  ;  no  hewer  of  wood  or  drawer  of  water  ;  no 
suielter  of  ore  or  digger  in  the  trench  ;  no  cunning  poli 
tician  or  Tammany  thief,  —  but,  because  he  is  a  man, 


394  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 


and  of  his  human  rLafnrp  r^nnnf  be  rid,  must  scan  and 
construe  the  world  differently  from  the  brute.  We  all 
idealize,  and  only  so  realize  ;  for  of  no  marriage  but 
of  the  actual  with  the  ideal  is  reality  born.  Mind  is 
term,  as  it  is  source  of  matter  ;  and  our  thought  a  fac- 
tpr  of  every  thing, 

Our    idea    is    a__ri£gdful_factor_of  the    people   too. 

JTo    the    pure,  all 


things  are  pure,  because  they  generate  purity  in  what-_ 
ever  they  touch.  Mephistopheles  comes  at  the  call  of 
Faust;  but  it  is  an  ill-principled  will  that  creates  him, 
—  not,  in  Shakspeare's  phrase,  "the  heat-oppressed 
brain."  Edmund  Burke  holds  man  a  wise  unwise  ani 
mal,  and  Thomas  Carlyle  calls  the  population  of  a  coun 
try  forty  millions  "  mostly  fools."  The  difference  of 
judgment  shows  how  much  higher  on  the  sca^e  of  gen- 
i  us  the  sober  statesman  reached,  than  the  w  i  1  fu  1  though 
splendid  pamphleteer.  He  that  considers  his  race  a 
knavish  set  betrays  lack  of  that  insight  which  produces 
their  goodness.  He  is  the  Alfonso  who  could  have 
counselled  God  !  To  like  your  kind  is  your  virtue  arid 
theirs.  Sympathy  is  the  hand  to  renew  and  eye  to 
behold^  In  a  smoking-car,  amid  cards  and  tobacco 
juice,  and  coarse  words  and  peanut-shells,  from  horny- 
fisted  lumbermen  and  brawny-necked  sailors  with  brass 
rings  in  their  ears,  I  have  witnessed  a  politeness  to  give 
up  their  place  to  one  less  tired  than  they  which  few 
Boston  parlors  could  match  ;  while  well-dressed  women 
of  fashion  in  the  train  behind  were  covering  the  seats 
with  their  spreading  skirts  and  selfish  bags.  One 
woman  told  two  lies,  saying  the  seat  was  engaged. 
My  thanks  are  not  more  for  gentlemen  and  ladies  than 


IDEALITY.  395 

for  civil  conductors,  courteous  brakemen,  and  grimy 
but  smiling  engineers.     On  what  : 


your  fellowship  the  love  and  good  works  will  f-nrnp!  ? 
It  was  the  making  of  him,  we  say  of  some  small  fur-  . 
therance  of  a  young  mail.  A  country  bachelor's 
objection  to  the  fair  sex  was  their  liking  to  be  made  of. 
O  strong  and  resolute  husband,  do  you  know  how 
much  you  can  make  of  that  tender  and  malleable 
nature  you  name  your  wife?  The  woman  lifts  the 
man  into  her  circlgj__the  man  sinks  the  woman  to  his  : 
but  either  can  turnJLhe  pther_into_a_vessel  of  beauty^or 
sharpened  steeL  In  Eugene  Sue's  story  the  words 
heart  and  honor  open  to  the  vile  Chourineur  a  new 
career.  We,  like  God,  create  in  our  own  image,  and 
as  he  made  every  creature,  "  after  his  kind."  I  shall 
be  to  you  what  you  ask,  with  your  character  as  well 
as  your  tongue. 

A  nation  in  its  need  regenerates  its  children.  When 
some  old  friend  of  Jefferson  Davis  and  political  sympa 
thizer  with  the  South  was  startled  from  that  leaning 
by  the  gun  at  Sumter  into  a  war-democrat,  why 
charge  with  being  insincere  one  who  is  but  patriot 
ically  new-born  so  to  help  the  land,  that  the  Confeder 
ate  president  becomes  not  a  martyr,  but  a  cipher?  The 
fouler  the  corruption,  the  purgation  more  sure  !  If 
dirty  water  must  fetch  the  pump,  there  is  clean  in  the 
well.  You  cannot  kill  conscience  more  than  oxygen. 
The  thunderbolt  forms  and  lurks  in  the  heavy  sky  of 
municipal  robbery  and  intrigue  ;  and  the  crashing  of 
base  authority  in  the  metropolis  of  the  land  proves 
public  virtue,  in  its  excessive  reserve,  yet  an  over 
match  to  annihilate  official  guilt,  though  more  hands 


RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 


than  appeared  bore  the  stain  of  the  enormous  bribe. 
"  I  would  rather,"  said  one,  "  be  a  door-keeper  to  the 
Committee  of  Seventy  than  dwell  in  the  marble  halls 
of  Tweed."  But  how  different  a  tune  the  moral  sense 
has  set  for  Tweed  now  to  sing  ! 

"I  dreamt  I  dwelt  in  marble  halls." 

When  thieves  refuse  bail  to  their  head,  we  see  honesty 
rising  as  a  power  to  break  every  wicked  Ring.  Itjs 
ideal  holiness  certain  to  conquer  inio^ity,  and  triumpji 
over  all 


So  we  make  the  Christ  of  ouj  faith.  Christians  nrq 
djsturbedj  by__anyjiint  that  their  Saviour  cannot  be 
certainly  drawn,  with  every  word  and  prodigy,  out  of 
the  historic  details.  What  if  we  cannot  circumstan- 
tudly  verify  the  image  of  the  God-man  ?  Is  that  imagg 
therefore..  a  vapor  _that_passe^a  awayj_  Fact  is  never 
the  ground  of  principle  ;  but  principle  the  womb  of 
fact  ...All  thgjtezts  and  winders  Jll 


procreate  spirit.  We  are  grieved  at  discrepancies  in 
the  (gospel  tales,  and  the  impossibility  of  proving  the 
miracles  even  if  they  occurred.  _  But  thoug-h?  in  the 
mouth  of  many  witnesses^  every  word  could  be  estab 
lished.  or  the  portents  rewrought  before  our  eyesT  we 
could  get  from  them  no  saving-  belief.  «cFaith  ij_J^_ 
principle.^not  a  conclusion/N  The  test  of  a  man  is 
what  he  builds  on,  an  incident  or^an  idea".  The  letter 
that  killeth  is  not  only  a  written  sentence,  but  every 
outward  appearance.  Sun  and  moon,  sea  and  star, 
are  but  an  alphabet.  The  world  is  God's  metaphor  ! 
All  cognitions  of  sense  are  signs  and  counters  of 
conception.  We  do  not  want  a  factitious  redeemer. 


IDEALITY.  397 

A  purely  historic  creed  is  the  house  Jesus  spoke  of, 
reared  on  the  sand,  and  sure  to  go  before  the  storm. 
None  but  the  ideal  underpinning  will  stand.  A  mira 
cle  over  the  greed  of  the  multitude  was  noble  ;  but  a 
multiplication  of  baked  bread  and  fish  that  never  grew 
as  wheat  or  swam  in  the  sea,  what  a  lie  of  God  or 
Nature  !  The  ideal  foundation  is  so  firm,  every  man's 
constitution  forces  him  to  fashion  his  Lord  according 
to  his  light  after  his  own  heart.  To  the  Jew  Jesus  was 
a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greek  foolishness ;  but 
to  whoever  believed,  God's  power  and  wisdom.  To 
such  as  could  receive  him,  he  became  righteousness 
and  sanctification  and  redemption.  Paul  saw  him,  and 
Thomas  did  not !  To  Mary  angels  were  in  the  sepul 
chre,  to  Peter  a  linen  roll.  John  the  Baptist  was  a 
reed  shaken  in  the  wind,  a  figure  in  soft  raiment,  or  a 
prophet  in  the  van  of  the  wrhole  line,  as  the  vision  of 
one  or  another  varied  in  the  wilderness.  Jesus  was  a 
Jew :  the  Christ  was  born  of  the  wedded  Greek  and 
Jewish  mind.  I  doubt  not  the  depth  of  that  immense 
personality  wrould  justify  more  than  all  we  can  say. 
But  the  personality  is  not  constructible  from  any  par 
ticulars  of  the  story  without  imaginative  help.  I 
should  not  believe  the  narratives  so  heartily,  did  they 
all  four  agree,  or  if  Paul  had  nothing  more  to  tell  us 
than  Mark.  Eye-witnesses,  every  lawyer  knows, 
always  differ.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  noticing  what  di 
verse  accounts  several  relators,  with  equal  opportunity, 
gave  of  the  same  events,  wondered  at  his  own  under 
taking  to  write  annals,  as  if  any  thing  could  be  exactlv 
reported  or  found  out.  We  say  Genesis  is  a  fable.  Is 
Moses,  or  whoever  wrote  it,  less  trustworthy  than 


398  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

Gibbon  or  Hume?  We  dispute  about  what  was  done 
by  John  Adams  or  General  Greene.  In  a  few  years 
how  many  myths  there  will  be  respecting  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  John  Brown,  arid  the  power  gone  to  dis 
tinguish  between  fiction  and  fact ;  but,  as  to  the  devo 
tion  to  country  and  humanity,  what  doubt  ? 

If  a  man  or  clergyman  is  incapable  of  this  spiritual 
idea  of  a  divine  humanity  latent  in  every  breast,  pre 
eminent  in  the  Nazarene,  he  will  not  be  at  home  in  the 
Unitarian,  Liberal,  or  Radical  fold.  Like  a  tired  sol 
dier,  he  will  drop  out  of  line  :  he  will  join  some  larger 
army  for  an  easier  march.  Why  have  Spurgeon  and 
Beecher  more  following  than  Martineau  and  Hedge? 
Because  the  ideal  faculty  is  so  feebly  developed ;  and 
the  popular  preachers  are  with  the  animal  crowd,  who 
must  be  met  on  their  own  level  to  be  usefully  served. 
Lament  not  the  departure  of  whoever  can  act  with 
more  power  elsewhere  !  Doubtless  men  and  ministers 
are  sometimes  misplaced.  Had  I  any  voice  in  the 
Church,  I  would  recommend  the  custom  in  war,  of  an 
exchange  of  prisoners. 

Christ  is  the  increment  of  Jesus, — the  individual 
expanding  to  an  ideal.  He  is  spiritual  formation,  not 
literal  fact.  He  is  a  creation  of  the  human  mind,  not 
a  deduction  from  particulars.  He  is  a  development, 
like  his  Church.  But  does  not  this  view  undermine 
his  permanence?  How  can  he  so  be  "the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever  "  ?  I  answer  his  spiritu 
ality  is  his  durability.  The  interior  is  a  citadel  for  him 
no  hostility  can  shake.  Were  it  but  demonstrable  facts 
he  rested  on,  Christianity,  like  yonder  sea-wall,  would 
be  washing  away  with  every  wave  of  time.  Is  the 


IDEALITY.  399 

solidity  of  the  material  world  sapped  by  the  science 
that  proves  its  dependence  on  the  mind?  No:  this 
ideal  quality  is  the  reason  it  cannot,  by  God  himself, 
be  unmade. 

"  He  can  create,  and  he  destroy," 

writes  the  poet.  The  latter  part  of  the  proposition 
let  me  doubt!  He  cannot  shake  off  this  great-coat 
of  Nature  he  wears.  It  is  alive  like  himself.  We 
piously  say,  He  can  do  as  he  pleases.  Can  he  contra 
dict  himself,  commit  suicide,  break  his  own  laws, 
annihilate  a  soul?  We  are  not  independent  of  him: 
is  he  independent  of  us?  Not  if  I  and  my  Father  are 
one  ;  for  the  Father's  unity  is  constituted  by  the  child 
hood,  which  is  no  accident  or  growth  of  time. 

I  know  the  Trinitarian  theory  assumes  a  peculiar  and 
limited  sonship  of  Jesus,  generated  solitary  and  eter 
nal.  But  the  divine  personality  degenerates  thus  into 
individuality.  Two  individuals  were  from  everlasting, 
one  Almighty,  the  other  co-equal  as  co-eval !  Unita 
rian  people  and  priests  backslide  into  this  heresy  from 
incapacity  of  that  inward  vision  which  comprehends 
in  unity  the  Parent  and  all  his  house.  Jesus  effected 
the  passage  from  the  human  to  the  divine  for  the  com 
mon-sense  of  mankind,  like  a  man  throwing  the  line 
across  Niagara  or  Menai  for  the  suspension-bridge. 
But  on  the  firm  structure  once  laid  all  men  are  as  free 
to  walk  as  himself,  —  nay,  he  but  shows  the  way  over 
an  old  road  already  made,  though  blocked  up  or  over 
grown.  These  sporadic  cases  of  reaction  to  an  ortho 
dox  or  semi-orthodox  faith  only  show  who  is  weak 
and  imperceptive  enough  to  be  diverted  by  a  false 


400  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

scent  from  the  narrow  way  of  that  true  direction  which 
intelligence  and  character  are  bound  in  fine  to  take, 
however  the  fondness  of  multitudinous  sympathy  se 
duce  into  the  broad  one,  to  mistake  large  following 
for  great ;  while  the  votes  that  are  to  be  weighed  and 
not  counted  are  cast  by  genius  and  science  against  the 
evangelical  clamor  of  numerical  superiority  in  disciples 
however  zealous,  and  superficial  preachers  of  whatever 
notable  fame.  This  method  of  the  ancient  religion, 
spite  of  sceptics,  will  vindicate  itself.  Deism  was  the 
doctrine  of  God  excluding,  but  theism  including,  Chris 
tianity, —  a  singular  aggrandizement  of  an  identical 
term.  The  theist  fulfils  Paul's  prophecy  of  the  Son's 
subjection  that  God  may  be  all  in  all ;  for  how  absurd 
to  make  that  a  matter  of  chronology,  instead  of  widen 
ing  inward  sight ! 

This  divine  humanity,  being  the  soul's  essence, 
dates  or  derives  not  wholly  from  Christ.  An  Amer 
ican  bishop  told  me,  when,  being  weary  in  his  jour 
ney,  he  dragged  himself  in  a  lonely  by-way  of  India 
into  a  deserted  hut,  perhaps  to  die,  one,  of  the  most 
despised  sect,  rescued  him  and  lent  money  to  the  stran 
ger,  trusting  his  remittance  from  Europe.  What  more 
could  Hebrew  Rothschild  or  Christian  Baring  do? 
Not  long  since,  in  New  Zealand,  an  Englishman,  on 
some  local  charge,  was  ready  by  the  savage  execu 
tioners  to  be  cut  down,  when  a  woman  whose  husband 
the  British  had  killed  rose  from  the  gloating  dusky 
crowd,  slowly  walked  across  the  space  to  the  centre 
where  the  victim  stood  and  the  knives  were  half 
unsheathed,  and  sat  down  at  his  feet.  At  once  fell 
paralyzed  the  hand  of  revenge  !  The  reprieved  pris- 


IDEALITY. 


4OI 


oner  rose,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  away.  Can 
Christendom  show  aught  more  fine?  The  glory  of 
the  gospel  is  its  education  of  mercy  in  the  normal 
school  of  mankind.  In  this  sign,  ive  conquer :  the  old 
Latin  motto  hints  better  victories  than  of  arms.  Walk 
ing  along  the  Western  avenue  last  winter,  on  the  low 
est  edge  of  the  marsh  I  encountered  a  throng  gazing 
curiously  where  the  sluggish  tide  crept  to  and  fro 
through  the  flats.  Day  after  day  I  met  them.  They 
gathered  month  after  month.  A  poor  Irish  girl  had 
there  been  violated  and  murdered  by  a  yet  undiscovered 
man,  to  liken  whom  to  any  four-footed  creature  that 
crawls  on  its  belly  or  honestly  walks  were  insult  to 
the  beast.  But  that  continual  presence  at  the  spot  was 
human  nature,  —  to  pity  the  unfortunate  and  disown 
the  shameful  deed.  I  asked  one  wet-eyed  lad  if  he 
knew  her.  No,  he  replied.  But  the  Christian  touch, 
to  reach  the  lowest  ignorance,  was  shown  in  rude 
carvings  on  the  fence  of  the  cross,  beside  the  name 
of  the  doubly-slain,  K.  Leehan,  from  whose  dread 
ful  struggles  the  compassion  of  God  released  the  soul, 
while  the  Christian  compunction  in  fellow-creatures 
would  do  more  than  any  execution  on  the  gibbet  to 
prevent  repeated  crime. 

The  test  of  Christianity  is  not  any  substitute  or  me 
diation,  but  closer  introduction  of  Deity.  The  China 
man  in  San  Francisco,  lazy  at  his  work  of  dusting  the 
church,  hearing  the  shout  of  the  concealed  sexton, 
cried  out,  God,  is  that  you  f  —  his  own  conscience 
becoming  the  God  of  the  temple  to  rebuke  his  sloth. 
The  Israelites  made  them  gods  of  gold.  We,  too, 
have  a  hand  to  make  our  God  after  our  mind.  God 

26 


402  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

made  man  in  his  own  image ;  and  man,  it  has  been 
said,  returns  the  compliment  by  making  God  in  his. 
How  else  can  he  make  him?  Making  God  a  person 
is  objected  to  as  confining  him  to  human  measure. 
What  measure  have  we  else  ?  Can  we  get  beyond  our 
own  thought?  A  God  foreign  to  human  nature  is  none. 
If  He  be  not  implicated  in  us,  and  we  in  Him,  He  is 
not,  and  we  were  not !  Your  God  will  be  no  better 
than  you,  —  your  inmost  self.  "Like  master,  like 
man,"  runs  the  old  proverb.  Like  owner,  like  dog, 
we  might  add  ;  for  I  have  noticed  how  the  mastiff  at 
the  gate  represented  the  occupant  of  the  house,  and 
they  would  be  surly  or  sweet  together,  —  the  man  a 
commentary  on  the  dog,  the  dog  on  the  man.  Per 
haps  natural  selection  of  the  animal,  or  careful  culti 
vation,  or  the  dog's  keeping  good  or  bad  company, 
accounts  for  the  remarkable  fact! 

We  must  retain  or  do  away  with  God  and  Christ 
and  man  all  together.  A  Spiritualist  correspondent 
insists  that  the  Christian  Deity  must  go.  The  castle 
of  faith  will  stand  not  by  any  literal,  but  an  ideal, 
defence.  Based  on  any  text,  with  any  miracle  for  its 
corner-stone,  or  special  pre-existence  for  its  cement, 
its  architecture  will  crumble  under  the  blows  of  criti 
cism,  or  yield  to  the  tooth  of  time.  As  an  existence 
and  entity  in  the  human  soul,  suggested,  illustrated, 
and  confirmed  by  recorded  words  and  events,  it  will 
survive.  The  assailant  of  true  Christianity  will  not 
have  the  easy  victory  he  beforehand  so  loudly  boasts. 
He  is  fighting  not  a  doubtful  register,  but  an  Ideal  of 
the  human  mind,  formed  from  many  an  age  and  race, 
with  solidarity  of  communion  through  a  hundred 


IDEALITY.  403 

generations  and  what  woven  fellowship  of  manifold 
tongues  !  He  defies  an  inward  standard,  with  a  meta 
physical  phrase.  Whatever  new  dispensation  may 
arrive,  the  old  banner  will  not  be  hauled  down  before 
any  ambitious  individual  flag.  No  private  notion 
or  interpretation  can  prevail  over  the  force  of  the 
common  life,  the  general  incarnation  of  truth,  and 
embodiment  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We,  like  Paul,  may  claim  to  work  with  God 
forming  others  and  ourselves.  Character  is  creation, 
his  and  ours.  But  what  God?  No  dogma  of  the 
Bible,  or  abstraction  of  the  mind,  no  internal  particle 
peculiar  to  an  individual,  but  the  atmosphere  of  souls  ! 
God  makes  man,  but  not  any  one  man,  in  his  image. 
Each  of  us  has  but  a  share  in  his  likeness.  It  takes 
us  all  to  make  it.  "  I  must,"  said  one,  "  act  my  own 
ideal."  Nobody  owns  one  !  It  is  common,  and  owns 
him  :  not  possessed  or  originated  by  any  person,  — 
Jesus  more  than  Judas;  but  an  admitted  law  claiming 
all  for  its  inspiration  and  property,  repudiated  by 
come-outers  and  seceders  from  that  faith  and  instinct 
of  their  kind  by  which  every  renovator  from  Luther 
to  Bismarck  is  stirred ;  and  cutting  off  from  which, 
to  be  agitator  and  destructive  is  all  one  can  attain. 
No  greatness  or  goodness  stands  alone.  Teneriffe  and 
Katahdin  seem  solitary,  —  unlike  Mont  Blanc,  which 
is  the  last  uprise  of  a  thousand,  or  Mount  Wash 
ington  amid  its  cabinet  of  hills ;  but  the  granite 
of  the  Maine  mountain  joins  it  to  the  New  Hamp 
shire  range,  and  the  volcanic  tufa  near  the  African 
shore  reaches  to  Madeira  and  Fayal.  So  the  monu 
ments  of  human  genius  and  virtue  tower  from  some 


404  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

general  base.  The  triumphs  of  literature  and  art, 
in  Homer  and  y£schylus,  Shakspeare  and  Milton, 
Michel  Angelo  and  Raphael,  grew  from  a  soil,  fed 
on  a  stream,  flourished  in  an  air  of  congenial  circum 
stances  and  favoring  events,  in  Britain  and  Italy  and 
Greece  ;  to  make  such  delegates  to  all  countries  of 
their  own  land,  and  spokesmen  for  the  age  of  Eliza 
beth,  Pericles,  or  the  Pope.  A  great  naturalist  thinks 
the  universe  of  life  sprang  from  no  single  vesicle  or 
monad,  but  an  ocean  of  germs  ;  and  the  human  com 
munity  has  put  forth  all  nobilities  of  private  worth  as 
leaves.  O  complainer  of  the  multiplication  of  your 
kind,  which  samples  will  you  reject  ?  Your  own  is  a 
specimen  to  be  saved  !  Little  sinner,  we  say  to  the 
babe :  what  ne'er-do-well  has  blossomed  at  last  into 
your  virtue?  England,  New  England,  Virginia,  New 
York,  shrinks  from  the  sight  of  its  own  cradle. 

Have  we  a  natural  right  to  vote  ourselves  im 
mortal?  No,  we  must  earn  our  heaven,  laboring  with 
God  !  Continuance  is  the  incident  of  immortality, 
truth  the  essence,  love  the  assurance ;  and  this  a 
contribution  to  our  conviction  from  our  kind.  The 
separate  soul  could  never  credit  an  endless  life  !  My 
faith  is  a  flower  out  of  the  stem  on  the  stock  of  my 
race ;  and,  without  these  encouraging  affections,  I 
were  a  helpless  infidel.  They  teach  me  identity  with 
my  Source  ;  that  the  world  is  not  a  whim  which  the 
Almighty  after  a  past  eternity  took  it  into  his  head  to 
make,  but  an  expression  inextricable  from  that  being 
his  goodness  names.  Love  informs,  when  it  rests  in 
its  object  and  does  not  cat-like  rub  round  it  to  come 
back  again,  resembling  the  devotion  that  beats  and 


IDEALITY.  405 

breaks  the  idol  which  does  not  in  danger  deliver  the 
devotee.  Of  that  love  which  is  the  acquisition  of  sacri 
fice,  time  cannot  rob  us,  nor  God  will.  This  natural 
communism  of  spiritual  worth,  this  concrete  trust  in 
God  and  destiny,  the  Power  will  justify  which  in 
stigated  and  ordained.  The  Fashioner  forsakes  not 
the  work  of  his  own  hands.  No  metaphysic  sponge 
can  wipe  off  from  the  black-board  of  history  fact  or 
wonder  which  the  miraculous  soul  begets.  From 
my  balloon,  staging,  or  ladder,  I  may  have  to  come 
down  ;  but  not  from  the  elevation  to  which  the  rising 
spiritual  continent  lifts ;  and  from  that  the  perfect 
whole  is  the  view !  Youth  may  rejoice  without  the 
vision  ;  but  old  age  is  dismal  if  it  lay  not  hold  of 
eternal  life.  "  Five  minutes  to  the  cataract"  shouted 
a  German  to  an  Englishman  abroad,  gliding  down  a 
river  in  his  canoe.  How  near  are  we  to  the  final 
plunge?  We  want  the  beaver's  sense  to  double-line 
his  dam  against  unwonted  cold  !  By  no  theory  or 
ceremony  can  we  be  guided  and  sustained.  To  know 
Christ's  rank  will  be  nought  to  breathing  his  love. 
The  stained  windows  that  make  corpses  of  the  con 
gregation  will  throw  no  light  on  the  last  darkness. 
Only  One,  revealed  within,  whom  we  partake  of,  can 
be  our  Sun  and  Shield.  To  call  God  an  Idea,  some 
think,  makes  him  unreal.  But  the  Ideal  is  the  Real. 
To  speak  of  an  ideal,  is  to  speak  of  an  imagined  but 
not  imaginary  Christ.  "  Is  not  this  the  son  of 
Mary?"  the  gaping  wonderers  asked.  It  was,  and 
something  more  !  Which  was  true, — the  girl  Beatrice, 
Dante  saw  in  the  street,  or  the  glory  in  Paradise? 
His  fancy  exaggerated  not,  but  fell  short.  Why  did 


406  RADICAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  cross  I  gazed  at,  cut  with  a  jackknife  on  the 
unplaned  board,  enlarge  to  my  eye,  outshining  those 
on  cathedral  spires?  It  was  an  Inner  Light  mixing 
with  the  beams  of  the  sun  !  What  makes  immor 
tality?  No  selfish  wish.  I  shall  be  immortal  if  any 
body  wants  me  to  be.  If  I  am  not  wanted  in  heaven, 
I  will  not  go  !  But  God,  who  is  my  Cause,  is  my 
Causeway.  Prayer  is  his  inhalation  and  exhalation 
in  my  breast. 

Because  Jesus  felt  this,  he  is  representative  between 
both  parties,  and  joins  man  with  God.  To  call  him 
ideal  is  not  to  deny  he  is  personal ;  for  ideal,  real, 
and  personal  are  all  the  same.  Wind  and  sound, 
spirit  and  person,  how  he,  whose  life  is  a  divine 
sonnet,  identifies  in  his  talk  with  Nicodemus !  He 
was  the  sounding  forth  of  the  mind  of  Him  whose 
own  personality  is  the  meaning  of  all  the  motion  of 
the  world  ;  but  whose  word  and  image  the  whole 
humanity  is,  more  than  any  one  member,  though 
with  title  of  Christ ;  and  the  date  of  whose  road  and 
right  of  way  to  the  soul  what  man  or  angel  can  tell  ? 
When,  in  some  famous  biography,  the  literal  Jesus  is 
put  for  the  infinite  God,  in  childish  ignorance  of  all 
scholarship  and  science,  we  must  needs  have  a  new 
spiritual  departure  in  religion,  lest,  in  the  yawning 
gulf  between  ecclesiasticism  and  common  sense,  the 
Church  as  a  school  of  honesty  and  wisdom  be  swal 
lowed  up.  That  Ideal,  insulated  in  no  individual,  is 
not  all  above,  but  stoops  to  our  side.  "You  may," 
one  said,  "  idealize  your  wife ;  but  you  cannot  kiss 
the  portrait  you  make."  Nay,  nothing  but  the  por 
trait  can  you  kiss !  The  ideal  is  the  real  woman : 


IDEALITY.  407 

the  flesh  and  blood  are  but  the  painting  or  pigments 
with  which,  by  the  Artist,  the  picture  is  ever  improved. 
When  you  put  her  into  any  act  of  sense  she  is  gone  ! 
In  your  definition  of  her  she  dies.  Only  as  represen 
tative  of  spirit  is  she  yours.  "  In  thee,"  said  the  ex 
piring  Bunsen  to  his  wife,  "  I  have  loved  the  Eternal." 
That  is  not  love  for  any  mortal  which  stops  short  of 
the  unseen. 


\ 


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"The  tale  (REALMAH)  is  a  comparatively  brief  one,  intersected  by  the 
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"There  are  many  reasons  why  we  like  this  irregular  book  (Realmah),  in 
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u  It  must  be  because  the  reading  world  is  unregenerate  that  Arthur  Helps 
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mind.  The  impression  prevails  among  some  of  those  who  do  not  read  him, 
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f  can  never  be  sufficiently  thankful  to  him  who  wrote  them  for  the  service  that  he 
has  rendered  to  me  and  all  others.  They  have  given  form  and  substance  to  every 
thing  revealed  in  the  Scriptures  reflecting  our  heavenly  home  of  love,  and  they 
have  done  not  a  little  to  invest  it  with  the  most  powerful  attractions  to  my  heart. 
Since  I  have  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  following  the  thought  of  their  author,  I  hare 
felt  that  there  was  a  reality  in  all  these  things  which  I  have  never  felt  before ;  and 
I  find  myself  often  thanking  God  for  putting  it  into  the  heart  of  a  poor  worm  of 
the  dust  to  spread  such  glorious  representations  before  our  race,  all  of  whom 
itand  in  need  of  such  a  rest." 

In  three  volumes,  16mo.     Sold  separately.     Price  of  each,  $1.26. 

Muled,  postpaid,  to  any  address,  on  receipt  of  the  price  by  the  publisher* 


MESSRS.  ROBERTS  BROTHERS'  PUBLICATIONS. 


REV.    C.   A.    BARTOL'S   NEW  BOOK. 

RADICAL     PROBLEMS. 

BY  REV.   C.   A.   BARTOL,    D.D. 

CONTENTS.  —  Open  Questions ;  Individualism;  Transcen 
dentalism;  Radicalism;  Theism;  Naturalism;  Materialism; 
Spiritualism;  Faith;  Law;  Origin;  Correlation;  Character; 
Genius:  Father  Taylor;  Experience;  Hope;  Ideality. 

One  volume,  i6mo.     Cloth.    Price  $2.00. 
PROFESSOR    PARSONS'S    NEW  BOOK. 

THE  INFINITE  AND  THE  FINITE. 

BY   THEOPHILUS    PARSONS. 

AUTHOR   OF   "OEUS    HOMO,"    ETC. 

One   neat   i6mo    volume.      Cloth.      Price   $1.00. 

"No  one  can  know,"  says  the  author,  "better  than  I  do,  how  poor  and  dim  a 
presentation  of  a  great  truth  my  words  must  give.  But  I  write  them  in  the  hope 
that  they  may  suggest  to  some  minds  what  may  expand  in  their  minds  into  a  truth, 
and,  germinating  there,  grow  and  scatter  seed-truth  widely  abroad.  I  am  sure 
only  of  this :  The  latest  revelation  offers  truths  and  principles  which  promise  to 
give  to  man  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  his  being  and  of  his  relation  to  God,  —  of 
the  relation  of  the  Infinite  to  the  Finite.  .  .  .  And  therefore  I  believe  that  it  will 
gradually,  —  it  may  be  very  slowly,  so  utterly  does  it  oppose  man's  regenerate 
nature, — but  it  will  surely  advance  in  its  power  and  in  its  influence,  until,  in  its 
own  time,  it  becomes  what  the  sun  is  in  unclouded  noon." 


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ROBERTS    BROTHERS,   BOSTON. 


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THE    To-MoRROW    OF    DEATH  ; 

OR, 

THE    FUTURE    LIFE    ACCORDING 
TO    SCIENCE. 

By    LOUIS    FIGUIER. 

TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH,  BY  S.  R.  CROCKER,     i  vol.  i6mo.     $2.00. 


From  the  Literary  World. 

As  its  striking,  if  somewhat  sensational  title  indicates,  the  book  deals  with  the 
question  of  the  future  life,  and  purports  to  present  "a  complete  theory  of  Nature, 
a  true  philosophy  of  the  Universe."  It  is  based  on  the  ascertained  facts  of  science 
which  the  author  marshals  in  such  a  multitude,  and  with  such  skill,  as  must  com 
mand  the  admiration  of  those  who  dismiss  his  theory  with  a  sneer.  We  doubt  if 
the  marvels  of  astronomy  have  ever  had  so  impressive  a  presentation  in  popular 
form  as  they  have  here.  .  .  . 

The  opening  chapters  of  the  book  treat  of  the  three  elements  which  compose 
man,  —  body,  soul,  and  life.  The  first  is  not  destroyed  by  death,  but  simply  changes 
its  form  ;  the  last  is  a  force,  like  light  and  heat,  —  a  mere  state  of  bodies ;  the  soul 
is  indestructible  and  immortal.  After  death,  according  to  M.  Figuier,  the  soul  be 
comes  incarnated  in  a  new  body,  and  makes  part  of  a  new  being  next  superior  to 
man  in  the  scale  of  living  existences,  —  the  superhuman.  This  being  lives  in  the 
ether  which  surrounds  the  earth  and  the  other  planets,  where,  endowed  with  senses 
and  faculties  like  ours,  infinitely  improved,  and  many  others  that  we  know  nothing 
of,  he  leads  a  life  whose  spiritual  delights  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  imagine.  .  .  . 
Those  who  enjoy  speculations  about  the  future  life  will  find  in  this  book  fresh  and 
pleasant  food  for  their  imaginations  ;  and,  to  those  who  delight  in  the  revelations 
of  science  as  to  the  mysteries  that  obscure  the  origin  and  the  destiny  of  man,  these 
pages  offer  a  gallery  of  novel  and  really  marvellous  views.  We  may,  perhaps,  ex 
press  our  opinion  of  "The  To-Morrow  of  Death  "  at  once  comprehensively  and 
concisely,  by  saying  that  to  every  mind  that  welcomes  light  on  these  grave  ques 
tions,  from  whatever  quarter  and  in  whatever  shape  it  may  come,  regardless  of 
precedents  and  authorities,  this  work  will  yield  exquisite  pleasure.  It  will  shock 
some  readers,  and  amaze  many  ;  but  it  will  fascinate  and  impress  all. 


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ROBERTS    BROTHERS,   BOSTON. 


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